








THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 
THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


A THESIS 

IN ROMANIC LANGUAGES 

1 RESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY 
OF PENNSYLVANIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 


WILLIAM SHAFFER JACK 

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PHILADELPHIA 


1923 




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PUBLICATIONS OF 


THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

DEPARTMENT OF 

ROMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES 







FOREWORD 


Considering the importance of the place that the entremSs 
holds in the history of the Spanish theatre, but little attention 
has been given it by way of critical studies either of its origin 
or its development. The most extensive hitherto is that of 
Sr. Cotarelo y Mori which serves as one chapter of the intro¬ 
duction to his Coleccidn de entremeses ... in volume 
seventeen of the Nueva Biblioteca de autores espanoles. There 
are, besides, short articles by Rouanet (Intro, to IntermMes 
espagnols ), Mantuano (Intro, to Entremeses del siglo XVII 
atribtiidos al maestro Tirso de Molina ), and Northup (Intro, to 
Ten Spanish Farces ); and Professor J. P. Wickersham Crawford, 
Bonilla y San Martin, and others have devoted some space to 
the entremes in works on the sixteenth century Spanish theatre. 

There still remain, however, many problems unsolved, both 
as to the origins and the growth of the entremes. The aim of 
the present work has been to trace a history of both word and 
form from their earliest known appearances in Spain, and, if 
it may be, to solve some of the problems related thereto. That 
there must still remain many points unsettled, is undoubted. 
This little study cannot seek to be in any wise definitive. The 
author will be more than satisfied if he shall have succeeded in 
tracing a clearer outline than has hitherto been available of the 
growth of the entremes, and in adding somewhat to the knowl¬ 
edge of what actually took place before it became a definite 
and established literary form in Spain. 

The writer’s heartiest thanks are due the eminent Hispanist, 
Professor Hugo A. Rennert, both for his counsel in the prepara¬ 
tion of this little book, and for having put at the author’s dis¬ 
posal his magnificent library of Hispanic works. The author 
owes an acknowledgment of no slight debt to Professor J. P. 
Wickersham Crawford for the unfailing interest he has mani¬ 
fested throughout the progress of this study, and for his assistance 
and counsel in its preparation. Thanks are likewise due to 
Mr. J. A. Meredith for suggestions on a number of points im¬ 
portant to a study of the entremes, and for having kindly con¬ 
sented to read the proofs. 


W. S. J. 





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CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Foreword. 5 

I 

The Word Entremes Before Fifteen Hundred. 9 

II 

Development Before Lope de Rueda. 39 

III 

Timoneda, Rueda, Alonso de la Vega. 74 

IV 

The Closing Decades of the Century. 96 

V 

The Seventeenth Century to Cervantes. 109 

VI 

Conclusion. 131 


Index 


133 



















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THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


9 


I 

The Word Entrem£s Before Fifteen Hundred 

The use of the word entrernes antedates, according to exist¬ 
ing documentary evidence, by nearly two centuries, the crea¬ 
tion of the genre known to literature by that name. During 
that period, the word was employed sporadically in a number 
of meanings more or less closely related, and an exact definition 
is rendered still more difficult by the frequent use of other 
terms such as roca , and carro , which were often synonymous 
with entr ernes. The aim, therefore, of the first part of the 
present chapter must be to trace, so far as the scanty and often 
inconclusive documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
in Spain will permit, the source and history of the term entremes 
before it was used as the name of a new literary form. 

While references to similar festivities occur in Spanish docu¬ 
ments as early as 1373, 1 as far as is known, the first occurrence 
of the term entremes on Spanish soil is found in the description 
of the festivities that attended the coronation of Dona Sibila 
at Barcelona in the year 1381. 2 The passage reads as follows: 
“Item fou aportat a la derraria del menyar un bell entremes, 
so es un bell pago 3 qui feya la roda y estave en un bell bestimen 
en torn del cual havia molta bolateria cuyta cuberta de panys 
dor e dargent e aquest pago fou servit fort altament e presentat 
a la taula 4 de la dita senyora ab mols esturments axi de corda 
com d’altres, e venien apart devan lo mayordom e cavaliers 


• M6rim6e, L’Art dromotique d Valencia, Toulouse, 1913, pp. 11-12. 

• The word farce, applied to dramatic performances, is less ancient than enlremts. In France, 
it can be traced back only to 1398. Cf. Benekc, Das Repertoire und die Quellen der frantdsischen 
Farce, p. 8. 

• “ Les deux mots entremfs et sainite ont 1'un et 1'autre, on le voit, une origine gastronomique.*' 
Rouanet. Intermides esfiagnols, p. 39, n. 2. 

4 There is a record in Germany as early as Jan. 24, 1417-18 of a play given between courses: 
"In dem mahl. zvisschen dem Essen, so machtcn sie soldi bild und geberd, als unser Frau 
• hr Kind unsern Herrn und auch Gott gebahr, mit fast kostlichen Tiichern und Gevvand. 

Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, II, 101. n. 2. He thinks it was probably a dumb-show. 

















' 

* 


















10 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


e donsells, e lo dit entremes portave en sos pits una cobla escrita 
qui deya axi. 5 . . .” 

The word, as used here, has a certain literary significance, 
as the copla shows, and has to do with a show-piece. Were it 
not for the concluding words where it is said that the entremes 
“bore on its breast a copla ," which can refer only to the peacock, 
there might be some reason to believe that by entremes the 
writer had in mind not only the dish but the presentation and 
the music as well. But while the word itself seems here to apply 
to the dish alone, the text of the passage shows clearly that 
there was an entertainment very much like entremets of a some¬ 
what later date in France where, however, extant records seem 
to show that they were much more elaborate than the one in 
question here. 6 

The term entremes , therefore, from its very inception, be* * 
longs to the east of Spain, to Valencia and Catalonia, and not 
to Castilian territory, and it was in that region that it was first 
to extend its meaning and develop. M6rim6e thinks that the 
matter of geographic locality is of little importance in a con¬ 
sideration of the development of the theatre. 7 Be that as it 
may, geography cannot be left unconsidered in a search for 
the source of the word. Baist, while uncertain, inclines to think 
that it comes from Italy. 8 There, however, the word inter¬ 
mezzo seems to be no older than the earliest acclimatization 
in Spain of the form entremes , although it is distinguished as a 
literary form at least as early as 1497, and probably much 
earlier. 9 Moreover, while there was from an early date con¬ 
tact with Italy, it was not with her that Spain, especially 
Catalonian territory, maintained its closest relations until the 
middle of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 


* Cil. MilS y Fontanals, Obras completas, VI, 235. For a discussion of the pauort at banquets, 

see Enrique de Villena, Arte cisoria, ed. Felipe-Benicio Navarro, cap. 7, p. 47, and the note, 
pp. 190-196. D’Ancona, Origini . . . II, p. 68, mentions "gentileze de cervi . . . 

pavoni," etc., at a feast given for the French ambassadors in July of the year 1473. The 
English soteltie was likewise an elaborate dish. Chambers, Mediaeval Stage , I, 223, and II. 397. 

* Pruniercs, Le Ballet de cour en France, Chap. I, esp. pp. 6-12. 

> Merimee, Spectacles et comediens d Valencia, p. 187. 

* Grober's Crundriss, Vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 463. 

’ Croce, I teatri di Napoli in Scritli di storia lelt. e pol., Vol. 7, pp. 12-13. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


11 


turies. Catalonia’s closest bonds, prior to the coming of Italian 
influence at about the date mentioned, had long been with 
Provence. As Men£ndez y Pelayo says, “Cataluna y Provenza 
estaban por sus orfgenes fntimamente enlazadas. Juntas 
formaron parte del primitivo reino visigodo. Juntas entraron 
en la unidad del imperio franco. Juntas lograron, bajo los 
d£biles sucesores de Carlo Magno, independencia de hecho y 
positiva autonomfa. La corrupcidn de la lengua latina se 
verified en ambas cumpliendo las mismas leyes.” 10 It might 
be reasonable, therefore, to look to Provence as the most natural 
place from which the word entremis might come. And pre¬ 
cisely, it was current in Provence. It was used there for a dish," 
and for a “Zwischenspiel bei festlichen Mahlzeiten zwischen 
die einzelnen Gange eingeschobene Lustbarkeit.”" The passage 
cited by Levy from a fifteenth century chronicle is interesting 
for its similarity to Catalonian texts: “Lo ters servici (foe) 
de grans plats de raoust. . . . Apres on portec un en - 
tremieys; so era un gran castel assietat sus un roc bel et fort. 
En lo dit castel avia quatre grandas tors . . . et en cascuna 

tor las banieras deu rey de Ongria. . . En las quatre 

tors avia quatre enfans petits, que cantavan devan la seignoria. 

. . . Lo quart servici foe de ausels. . . . Lo segon 

entremeys foe una gran bestia qu’es appelada tigre; avia dins 
lo cos un home que li fasia getar lo foe per la gorja. . . 

Lo ters entremeys foe una gran montanha que portavan vingt 
et quatre homes, y avia en la dita montanha doas fontanas.” 1 * 
In the north, the word can be traced back at least as far as 
the poems of Marie de France, ca. 1175, where it is found in 
the Lanval : 14 


Men6ndez y Pelayo, Antologia de poelas liricos Castellanos, Tomo I, pr61ogo. pdg. LXXIX. 
See also for the time of the breaking down of these bonds. Schack, tr. de Mier, Hist, de lo 
lilrratura y arte dram, en Espafta, II, 167. And for a still further extension to Castile, Wolf. 
Studirn tut Geschichte der span, und Port. National literatur, p. 582. 

" Levy, Provenzolisches Supplement-Wbrterbuch, III, 84. 

'» Levy, op. cit. 

'* ( hroniques romanes des comtes de Foix composes au XVe si^cle par Armand Esquerrier 
»t Mtfgevillc et p. p. FOix Pasquier et Henri Courteaulx. Foix, Paris, 1895. Levy, Proven- 
taliuhes Supplement-IVdrterbuch, II. p. Ill, and Idem, III, p. 85 for the text cited. See also 
Jeanroy, llistuire sommaire de la lilteroture meridionale, pp. 230-31. 

• The lines cited are 180-188. p. 93. ed. Karl Warnke. 



12 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


puis li aportent a mangier. 

Od s’amie prist le souper; 
ne feiseit mie a refuser. 

Mult fu serviz curteisement, 
e il a grant joie le prent. 

Un entremes i ot plenier, 
qui mult plaiseit al chevalier: 
kar s’amie baisout sovent 
r e acolot estreitement. 

The editor 15 gives as a translation for the word entremes in 
this citation the German Zwischenspeise. Since the last two 
lines, introduced by kar , give the justification of the assertion 
that the entremes pleniers pleased the knight, it is difficult to 
admit that the excellence of the meal and its pleasure should 
have caused the knight to make love to his sweetheart. It 
seems much more reasonable to interpret the word entremes 
as entertainment. 

The term is also found in the sense of altercation or quarrel 
in the Roman de Reward; 16 in the Roman de la Rose , it is used 
apparently to designate fine or delicate dishes at a meal, “de 
tables pleines d’entremez” ; 17 in the Roman de la Violette , it 
seems to be applied to some sort of dramatic presentation of 
the deeds of Gerars li biaus; and in the plays of the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries it seems to have meanings similar to 
those which it assumed in the early Spanish plays of the sixteenth 
century before the rise of the form of that name. 

Because, therefore, the bonds between Provence and Cata¬ 
lonia were so close, and inasmuch as the word entremes follows 
in the latter, from the very beginning of its use, the same lines 
of meaning to which it had been accustomed in Provence, it 
seems certain that the last-named region, and in a larger sense 
France, may be considered the home from which it passed 
into Spain through the intermediary stage of Catalan. 18 

'»Warnke. 

'* Cit. Godefroy. Dictionnoire de I'ancienne lungue. francatse, Vols. Ill and IX. The Renard 
is ca. 1200. 

•’ Cii. Godefroy. lie Rives as an explanation “c*e qui se sert dans un repas entre deux ser¬ 
vices.” The context, however, seems hardly to warrant the inclusion of "entre deux services.” 
Godefroy appears to have been influenced by the modern acceptation. 

'• Cf. Cotarelo, Coleccidn de entremeses . . . intro, on the entremes: and El Bachiller 

Mantuano, Rntrrmrses del siglo AT// atribuidos al maestro Tirso de Molina, pp. 9 10. 




TI1E RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


13 


Although a well-known writer and critic in a recent introduc¬ 
tion derives the word from inter and medium , 19 it has been 
generally accepted that entrernes comes from the compound 
inter and missum™ and this agrees with the early meanings, 
for the Provencal and Catalan word, and its French cognate 
entremets , signify first of all a dish, a between-course as has 
already been shown in the documents cited. It is true that 
one of the Provencal texts mentioned contains the variant 
entremieys , 21 which through association of ideas may represent 
confusion with mieg from medium. 

The word entremes , after its earliest occurrence in a document 
of 1381, is found in Valencian documents for the years 1399, 
1402, 1412, 1413, 1414, 1415, 1432, 1435, 1437, 1446, 1453. 
In Barcelona, it appears for the years 1423 or 1424, 1437, 1440, 
ca. 1446, 1453, 1458, 1461, 1462, 1467, 1477, 1481, and at Sara¬ 
gossa in documents for 1414 and 1487, as well as elsewhere at 
various dates throughout the century. 22 

From designating a course or a special dish at a banquet, 
entremes assumes a more or less dramatic significance first in 
Saragossa as early as 1399, and in Barcelona in 1424. 23 In the 
early years of the fifteenth century, entrembs as a dramatic 
term was applied to two kinds of representation: the platform 
on which was arranged a group of set-figures or statues forming 
an allegorical scene; and in the second place the so-called carros 
or rocas , pageants which bore the allegorical figures about the 
city in procession during the solemnities were likewise called 
entremeses. The spectacles fell only upon days of public re¬ 
joicing or thanksgiving: festivals having either a political or a 
religious significance. Whether the immovable representation, 
that is, the platform, already mentioned, preceded chrono¬ 
logically the carros , it is not possible to say with certainty. 

•'Entremeses de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra , ed. Bonilla y San Martin, intro., p. X. 

.. Mcyer-Lubkc, Romanisches-etymologisches Worterbuch, article 5612. 

J * See paRC 11. 

” For these data, ef. Mild y Fontanals. Obras complelas, Vol. VI; Merimde, L'Art dramatique 
H Valencia; Cotarclo, Coleccidn de entremeses . . . (Nueva B. de A. E., Vol. XVII); 

Moratln, Ortgenes de A. E.. Vol. 2, pp. 152-53, note of D. Josd Sol y Padris). 

” Mild y Fontanals. Obras complelas, Vol. VI. 236 and 256. Cit. also M6rim£e, L’Art dra¬ 
matique a \’alencia, p. 12, n. 1. 



14 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


These platforms were set up within the churches, and it seems 
likely that they may have appeared there first, and later taken 
on the ambulant characteristics that make them familiar on 
the carro. These spectacles were an imitation or reflection of 
the church ceremonial from which they took at least their 
inspiration. Like the relics, they were presented in the church; 24 
. like the relics, they were borne about the city in procession, 
and when that procession was to celebrate a religious festival, 
in the same cortege with them. 

These shows were, as has been said, usually religious in char¬ 
acter. There may be cited, for example, “el enlremes de Belen 
con los reyes magos a caballo; el entremSs de Santa Eulalia 
con sus companeras; el entrants de la misma santa con Daciano 
y doctores.” 25 In the year 1424, or the latter part of 1423, 

, there is record of a festival for Don Alfonso V on his return from 
Naples, and the document reads in part, “Item foren aportat 
los entremeses de la dita ciutat representans paradis e infern 
ab la batalla de Sant Miquel e dels angels e de Llucifer e de 
sos sequaces e lo vibre e lo fenix e la aguila”; and for 1461 and 
1467 there are further mentions of the same, or very similar 
entremeses . 26 The castel likewise, probably always provided 
with allegorical figures, played a considerable part in these 
shows. 27 In Valencia, for the year 1435 there is a note referring 
to the construction and tearing down of ‘Tentrem6s del Paradis 
terrenal.” Exactly the same construction is mentioned in 1417 
’ as a roca. It is evident that the two words were used synony- 

(, t • -v - ' «~r, • ) 

mously. 28 


« M6rimee, op. fit., p. 7. 

Moratfn, Ortgenes (B. de A. E., II). p. 152; note by D. Jos6 Sol y Padris. The book of 
records of Barcelona from which this citation is taken covers the fifteenth century to the 
year 1462. The shows in question were, therefore, prior to that date. 

'• ’ MilS, op. cit., VI, pp. 245-256 and notes. 

2 i The descriptions of these processions and solemnities recalls strongly English pageantry 
(see, Withington, English Pageantry, and Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, both passim). There 
can certainly be no question here of any direct influence; hardly even of the most remote. 
Such analogues serve to show how closely knit were the popular diversions of all Europe of 
s the time, and not only of those times and countries, but of all times and in all places. In- 
fluence is a dangerous thing to argue when it is a question of the popular play-spirit. 

Merimtfe. op. cit., p. 11, thinks that at first a distinction was made between these terms. 
"Au debut on semble avoir distingue Ventrames, qui 6tait la charpente. et la roca, qui 6tait 
la d6eoration dont Yentrames etait le support.” 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


IS 


The Italian intermezzi at least as early as the fifteenth century 
were likewise allegorical, but usually in a mythological and not 
a religious way. Italian influence, if it can be noted at all, 
which is doubtful, is very slight. It may just possibly be present 
in such an entremSs as that of the Pastor , representing a cardinal, 
and of the seven liberal arts, 29 which had at least something of 
an Italian flavor about it, if one may judge from the title which 
alone has been preserved, but if so, this is an isolated case, 
and not a rule. 

The entrernes of the church and the carros does not serve 
as a forerunner to the entremh of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries except for the fact that it acclimatizes in Spain and 
makes current the name by which the form was later to be dis¬ 
tinguished. In these early entr emeses is to be seen rather the 
first faint stirrings of another and quite different genre , the 
religious auto , including, of course, the auto sacramental. And 
herein lies a strange thing. The two literary forms that best 
typify the extremes of the genius, though perhaps not wholly 
the literary greatness, of the Spanish race as expressed in the 
theater, have both borne the same name: the latter at its 
origins before it became a form; the former at a subsequent 
period by adoption, as the auto took on a new appellation and 
lost the name entr ernes A* 

The entr ernes as it first appeared as a spectacle was with¬ 
out dramatic significance, but a development soon began to 
take place. Very early the set figure was replaced by the living 
actor. This occurred as early as 1407 when Adam and Eve, 
as M6rim6e remarks, were “honest Valencians.” 31 This was an 
immense step toward something dramatic. With human actors 
came both the need for expression and its possibility. There 
is a record of singing accompanying entremeses in the year 1413, 32 


'♦ Caflete. Tealro espaflol del siglo XVI, p. 96, n. 1. For the Intermcdj, see, among others, 
I’runidres, Le Ballet de cour en France, passim. 

J * The mere fact that the carros are mentioned through the sixteenth century is no proof 
that the religious auto, and the auto sacramental, did not develop from them and the repre¬ 
sentation they carried. In that century, the auto itself was represented from the carros. 

" Merim6e, op. cit., pp. 14-15. 

'• The Italian intermezzi were also musical. In them lies the source of the melodrama and 
the ballet. The same development, however, does not hold good for Spain in the sixteenth 



16 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


at a celebration in honor of the visit of the king, Don Fernando, 
to Valencia. The document, dated March 7, 1415, reads: 
“Mosen Juan Sist, presbitero, per trobar 6 ordenar les cobles 
6 cantilenes ques cantaren en los entramesos de la festividad 
de la entrada del Sor Rey, Reyna 6 Primogenit.” 33 The second 
step toward humanization had thus been taken, and by the 
sixteenth century, in Merim6e’s opinion, 34 the mute carro or 
entremes was no longer known. The personages always spoke, 
or recited, or sang. 

All this, of course, is pageantry rather than drama in any 
literary sense. These pageant-like entremeses continued to be 
called by that name until at least 1501. 35 The carro , however, 
did not cease to exist with the close of the fifteenth century. 
They are mentioned all through the following. In 1528, there 
was a roca representing the Sacrificio de Isaac 36 ; and during the 
latter years of this century the documents are full of references 
to the carros . 37 Many of these, of course, were merely the 
wagons used for representing the auto , and consequently must 
not be confused with the pageant carros , but others belong 
distinctly to the latter class, as, for example, that mentioned 
for 1528; or that of 1586, when Ruf L6pez contracts to paint the 
carros triunfales. 3 * Again in 1595 there were eight carros triun- 
fales , and in the same year Luis Barajona contracted to “hacer 
una fuente en el carro de Santa Susana.” 39 


1 ' « Lamarca. Cit. Rennert. Spanish Stage, intro., pp. XII and XIII; also Mils, op. cit., VI, 

pj>. 245-46. Rennert gives 1412 as the year of the visit, Mil£ 1413 ( cf. op. cit., p. 243); Rennert 
gives March 7th as the date of the decree; Mil&, Marcli 9th. Cf. also Cotarelo, Colecci6n, 

. . . Tomo I, p. LV. 

j* M6rim6e, op. cit., p. 23. 
m M£rim6e, op. cit., p. 21. 

»* Rouanet, Colecci6n de autos, etc .IV, 136. 

P6rez Pastor. Nuevos Datos, passim; also same author Nuevos Dalos, 2nd series, in Bulletin 
Hispanique, Vol. IX. Sanchtz-Arjona, El Teatro en Sevilla. Diaz de Escovar, Anales. The 
last-named copies assiduously from the others. 

The carro, like the pageant in England, was often constructed by the corporations of the 
city, sometimes by religious orders. They were, as M&rimee says, “non des artistes, mais 
des manoeuvres.” I r or a description of those of the mid-sixteenth century, see Cafiete, Teatro 
espahol del siglo XVI, 325-330. 

J* It would be of interest to compare what is known of these pageants with those of England 
and of Italy. Withington and Chambers have most of the data for England. For Italy 
see Giannini, Origini del dramma musicale, in Tropugnatore, XXVI, Pt. I, pp. 209-261; D’An- 
cona, Origini. passim; and Pcllizzari, Portogallo e Italia nel secolo XVI, pp. 202-203. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


17 


The important point in this for a study of the entremSs, how¬ 
ever, lies not in the fact that the carro continued to be used 
as a pageant throughout the sixteenth century, but that after 
1501 it is no longer called an entremSs. The term carro or roca 
remains. Entrernes begins to have a new and very different 
significance. 

The word as used in the fifteenth century was not confined 
to the carros. It was applied also to certain aristocratic diver¬ 
sions which, nevertheless, were in a certain sense “popular,” 
that is to say, more spontaneously in the spirit of play than 
even the pageants. The chief text that shows this use of the 
word is the Doctrinal de Caballeros of Alfonso de Santa Marfa. 40 
“Dos cosas son en que sin actos de guerra al tiempo de hoy 
los fijos dalgo usan las armas ... ; la una es en contiendas 

del reino; la otra es en juegos de armas, asi como los torneos 
e justas, e estos autos, que agora nuevamente aprendimos, 
que llaman entremeses.” 41 The author speaks of them as autos. 
Were the Doctrinal of a little later date, the term might appear 
to have a real dramatic meaning. As it is, they were in all 
likelihood more or less impromptu allegorical performances 
similar, perhaps, to those described in the Cronica del Condestable 
de Castilla Lucas de Iranzo where there is mention of a pantomime 
and dance taken part in by the gentlemen of the household at 
the time of his marriage in 1461. These entremeses might, says 
the Doctrinal , be played by gentlemen, but the momos were 
considered beneath their dignity. In the same Crdnica del 
Condestable de Castilla , for the year 1461 a statement reads: 
“y por cuanto este dfa . . . recrecid mucha pluvia del 

cielo, ni se corrieron toros, ni se hicieron otras novedades, salvo 
el danzar y bailar y cantar en cosante, y otros entremeses a 
tales fiestas anejos.” 43 This statement makes it clear that danc¬ 
ing and singing were called entremeses. Such a fact gives the 
word a very broad field, and from the documents extant, which, 
however, are so few and inconclusive as not to permit of much 


" The first edition known is of 1487. 

*' Kohler, Sieben sfianische dram. Eklogen. p. 106. Milego, El Teatro en Toledo, 41-42. 
«/. Bonilla edition of Cervantes. Entremeses, intro., pp. XI-XII. 



18 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


generalization, but it is possibly not too much to say that knightly 
plays and games in general, whether of a social or a dramatic 
nature, cou d pass under that name. 43 Yet once again, though 
using the name, these games were far removed from the literary 
form. Neither were they anything in themselves that could 
lead directly to the form as it later developed. 44 

In these knightly games, there seems to have been no comic 
element. But comedy, which was to be the most important 
characteristic of the entremes in the sixteenth and following 
centuries, was by no means unknown in connection with the 
name in the preceding. In the year 1442, a complaint was laid 
with regard to certain abuses that had crept into the public 
festivals. A part of the statement is as follows: “Fou proposat 
per lo discret en Johan Gradoli notari, altre dels honorables 
concellers. . . . Molt honorables senyors, la saviesa de 

quascun de vosaltres no creu ignoran com la festivitat de la 
Caritat es stada principalment ordonada per co que nostre 
Senyor Deu trameta pluja sobre los blats de la qual lavors 
comunement per nostres pecats freturan, e que per sa pietat 
preserve aquells de tempestat, e que conserve sanitat e pau en 
lo poble, e en qual manera per solemnitat e honorificencia de la 
dita festa se acostumavan en temps passat fer en semblant dia 
diverses entremeses e representacions per las parroquias, devotas 
e honestas e tals que trahien lo poble a devocio; mes empero 
d’algun temps en sa quasi tots anys se fan per los caritaters 
de las parroquias, qui los demes son jovens, entremeses de 
enamoraments, alcavotarias e altres actes desonests e reprobats, 
majorment en tal dia en lo qual va lo clero ab processons e 
creu levada portants diversas reliquias de sancts, de que lo 
poble pren mal exempli e roman scandalitzat.” 45 

This statement is noteworthy. It is the first time that any¬ 
thing approaching the comic is mentioned in connection with 

« There is, for instance, in further support, a statement in the Crdnica de D. Alvaro de Luna 
where: "se dice de D. Juan II, que fu6 muy inventivo, e mucho dado a fallar invenciones 
e sacar entremeses en fiestas, o en justas, o en guerra, en las cuales invenciones muy agudamente 
significaba lo que queria.” Schack, tr. de Mier, I, 239, n. 2. 

<« It may be noted in passing that in England the so-called interlude or enterlude has little 
or nothing in common with the entremes. Cf. Chambers. Mediaeval Stage, Vol. II, The Interlude. 

« Mild y Fontanals, Obras completas, VI, 322-323. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


1* 

the entremSs. The complainant calls attention to a develop¬ 
ment that had led to the introduction of humor and even of 
obscene details. Originally, he says, these shows or ceremonies 
had been propitiatory. Then they had fallen into the hands of 
the young and the corruption of the world had entered them. 
What may have been the character of the io\k-entr emeses the 
good gentleman denounces so bitterly, it is difficult to say. 
It is to be noted that while for the most part ( majorment ) these 
entremeses were played on religious holidays, by the implication 
of the text they were not altogether confined to those seasons 
of festivity. If such were the case, they must have then become 
the diversions of the young, and consequently have been entirely^ 
foreign to the shows of the carros. It would seem likely also 
that they, like the aristocratic diversions just discussed, were 
mainly, if not entirely, impromptu. Perhaps they may be looked 
upon as the rustic counterparts of those games of the rich, 
also called entremeses. 

To argue from modern documents between which there is a 
lapse of more than two centuries is hazardous. In the recrea¬ 
tions of the people, however, time plays a far less important 
part in the matter of changes wrought, than in literature. There 
is a passage in the Theatro de los theatros of Bances Candamo 46 
that in its main points follows so closely the Catalan document 
above cited, and that, if it be permissible to argue across the 
lapse of time, throws so much light on Spanish popular diver¬ 
sions of the type mentioned, that it seems worth while to cite 
it in part. 41 . . . para entretener parte de las noches repre- 

sentan los mozos mas hauiles vnos entremeses en prosa, hauiendo- 
los ellos primero conferido entre si y diciendo lo que ha de 
hacer a cada vno de ellos aquel que saue el juego . . . yo 

dire vno que vi en Ossuna con los terminos mas decentes que 
pueda. . . . Introduciase, pues, en el juego que he dicho 

vn estudiante que caminaua mui hambriento, y hallando vna 
vina se entraba en ella alabando el hallarla sola y diciendo muchos 
elogios de aquel genero de fruta que a un tiempo es alimento 
y vebida, comia con gran prisa haciendo muchos ansiosos y 


Horn 1662 . 




20 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


hambrientos visages. A este tiempo salia con vn arcabuz el 
guarda de la vina muy colerico y queriendole matar; el pobre 
estudiante se le humillaua con los maiores estremos de cobardia 
quejxxlia fingir; pero el guarda, inexorable a las exclamaciones, 
le pedia el dinero de las vbas comidas. Escusabase con su 
pobreza el estudiante y con serle imposible la satisfaccion, y 
el otro le decia que ya que no las pagaua no las hauia de lleuar 
ni aun comidas, y asi que tratase de dejarlas alii arrojandolas 
por fluxion de vientre, que el con eso cumplia. Tambien se 
disculpaua el estudiante con no hallarse dispuesto para ello, 
pero amenazandole con el arcabuz le obligaua a fingir la fea 
accion de voluer el alimento, prouocando la risa del auditorio 
con los gestos del temor y de la fuerza . . .” 47 He goes on 

to cite still another of these popular cntremeses, this second one 
erotic in nature. 

These games, then, consisted of coarse horse-play, but with 
a more or less definite situation, and resemble to no small degree 
the cruder early entremeses , or a rough and undeveloped scenario 
of the commedia dclTarte. It is quite possible that both forms 
may have had a certain amount of influence upon these popular 
diversions by the time of Bances Candamo. The folk is very 
likely to carry into its own play reminiscences of the things 
seen in the theater. Nevertheless, allowing for such reminis¬ 
cences, which doubtless showed in a better developed intrigue, 
and a greater refinement of form, these games are excellently 
defined by the terms of the complaint, “entremeses de enamora- 
ments, alcavoterias e altres actes desonests e reprobats,” and it 
is hardly too much to say that in those described by Bances 
. Candamo there is at least in essence a fairly accurate description 
pf what was intended by the old counsellor. And it is to be 
noted that in both cases the same name applies. Here, then, 
is a popular, comic diversion, a by-play of some humorous 
or ludicrous sort, intercalated in the general festivities whether 
of a religious or a popular holiday, and to which they give the 
name entr ernes. 


«» Bances Candamo, Theatro de los thealros in Revislo de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, Vol. 
VI. Ser. 3, J902, p. 80. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


21 


To recapitulate: entremSs , losing its meaning as a set-piece 
at dinner, became the name of the religious play or show-piece 
of the platform and the carro; then, somewhat before the middle 
of the fifteenth century, it was applied to popular, and a little 
later aristocratic, diversions of a comic or allegorical nature. 
It did not, however, as has been said, lose thereby its connection 
with the religious festivals until the early years of the sixteenth 
century, when a rapidly growing list of new meanings tore it 
loose from its old moorings, and brought it over finally to be the 
almost exclusive property of the theater. 

A study of the adoption of the word as the name of a literary 
form belongs to the next chapter. It was late, however, before 
that use became exclusive, and during the first half of the sixteenth 
century, entremes was a word applied by the writers of plays 
in a number of senses wholly unrelated to any concept of a 
literary genre. Torres Naharro uses it in the Comedia Himenea :« 8 

Febea, aquesta doncella, 
tiene un hermano marques 
que entendia la conseja, 
el cual procura por ella 
desque sabe el entremes 
que Himeneo la festeja, 

where it is used in the sense of trick, with no apparent comic 
connotation. 

In the Tesorina 49 of Jayme de Giiete: 

Pinedo. Que entremes! 

Este fray re loco es, 

where it may be translated “what a joke!” 

In the Vidriana : 50 

Cetina. Quando, pues? 

aqueste es otro entremes. 

Modesta. Si me descalgo el chapin, 
yo te mostrar6 lo ques. 

*' ,n argumrnlo. Profialadio, II, 14. 

** C mnr,, ' a tesorina. I. 1820. In Cronan. Tealro espoHol del siglo XVI. 

• < ronan nf>. tit., p . 234. 


22 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


Here it seems to be in the sense of “another matter,” or per¬ 
haps it may be rendered by “another bit of fooling.” This 
line, “aqueste es otro entremes,” is found a second time in the 
.'same play, and there also the word has much the same meaning. 51 
: -The third case in which entremes is found in the Vidriana sl 
shows some variation in sense. It is of a trick that the servants 
play to. frighten the lovers: 

Carmen to. Dale, pues; 

mas si nos sale al rebes, 
pardios, yo te enlodar£. 

Secreto. Mirad que negro entremes! 

Grita tu, como yo har£. 

Under very different conditions, the word appears in the 
speech of Liria in the Fargo, a manera de tragedia : S3 

O que altas alamedas 
llenas de auezitas ledas 
que cantan sus entremeses. 54 

This might be rendered by the English work interludes. The 
word refers, of course, to the songs of the birds. The interest¬ 
ing thing is that it is found in a musical connection. As has 
already been seen in the present study, as far back as 1513 en¬ 
tremeses of a musical nature are known to have existed. 55 The 
intermezzi were, of course, frequently musical; but music occurs 
only sporadically in connection with the word in Spain. In the 
fifteenth century, non-musical, allegorical, occasionally comic, 
connotations predominate. 

In the Farsa Salamantina , 56 the word is found three times. 
The first 57 is in a passage that copies except for a single word 

*• Cronan, Teatro espaftol del siglo XVI, p. 213. 

i * 1 Cronan, op. cit., p. 228. 

m Pub. by Dr. Rennert in Pub. of Unit, of Penna., Romanic Lang, and Lit., Extra series 
No. 3. The word occurs in line 279. 

«In the Italian plays, instrumental music is sometimes spoken of as a tramezzo. For ex¬ 
ample, in the Atto della Pinta, owero Rappresentazione della creazione. del mondo of the year 
1562, it is directed that "cadera la tela et si vedera Iddio con tutti li angioli che con tramezzo 
di varii strumenti canteranno. . . .” Di Giovanni, Delle rappresentazioni sacre in Palermo 

ne‘ secoli XVII e XVIII in Propugnalore, I, 27. Also idem, pp. 30, 31. 

« Lamarca. See note 33 to the present chapter. 

Bartolom6 Palau, Farsa Salamantina, pub. in Bulletin llispanique, Vol. II, 1906. 

it Lines 749-750. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


23 


the one cited above from the Tesorina; in the second, it is used 
with the meaning “trick”: “y hard algun entremes.” 5 ® The 
last, 59 “que entremes,” can also probably be rendered “what a 
clever trick.” 

Both Rueda and Timoneda use the word in senses other than 
its application to the literary form. Pas so two of the Turiana 
has “escucha aqui qu’entremes,” that is to say, with the meaning 
“nonsense,” “foolishness.” In the Armelina, 60 there is the 
sentence, “por no pagarme haces agora esos entremeses.” It 
is clear that the sense here is the one already most commonly 
noted: anglice , trick. 

In the Trapaqeraf* published by Timoneda: 

Alon. Pardiez, que yrd a mi posada 

por mas que vos brauees. 

Ro. Escucha aqui, qu’entremes! 

sus, sali, 

that is, “Just hear what a brave threat,” or something to that 
effect. 

Again in the Rosalina : 62 

Lucas. Mira 

qu6 locura o qu6 entrames 63 
os tomb de al Portugues 
mojalle? 

This must mean, “Come, what madness, or caprice, seized you?” 

In none of the passages cited has the word entremes the slight¬ 
est literary significance. Yet in them is to be observed a step, 
already begun in the preceding century, toward a fixation of 
the general meaning in a sense approximating that in which the 
word will be applied to the new form. There are, it is true, a 

»' Line 1236. , 

>* Line 2282. 

‘‘Lope de Rueda, Obras ( ed. de la Real Academia Espaflola.), 1,112. Unless otherwise 
noted, references will be to this edition which is the best available of the man who is in many 
respects the most important figure in the Spanish drama of the sixteenth century before the 
"titer greater Lope appears. 

“ Timoneda, Obras completas (Pub. Por la Sociedad de Biblidfilos Valencianos), Vol. I, 408. 

* J Timoneda, op. cit., p. 467. 

*' 1 spelling is exceptional for so late a date. It is the only case of the kind in Timoneda, 
•ind recalls the older Catalan and Valencian documents of which some have been cited in the 
present study. Timoneda was, of course, himself a Valencian book-seller. 




24 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


-*? a 

number of minor variations, but, if exception of the Farqa a 
tnanera de tragedia is made, the predominating idea in all the 
others is that of a trick, and in most cases this is taken in the 
com>iq,sense. This step brings the word very close to the mean¬ 
ing as-it was first understood when taken over by the literary 
form.. Hour close, will be made clear in a study of the earliest 
entremeses in the following chapter. 

A strict definition of the literary form called the entremes 
is by no means easy to formulate. The writers of the early 
seventeenth century are content to speak of them as comedias 
antiguas. Lope de Vega in his Arte nnevo de hazer comedias 64 
says: 

Acto fueron llamadas, porque imitan 
Las vulgares acciones y negocios. 

Lope de Rueda fue en Espana exemplo 
Destos preceptos, y oy se veen impressas 
Sus comedias de prosa tan vulgares, 

Que introduze mecanicos oficios 
Y el amor de una hija de un herrero: 

De donde se ha quedado la costumbre 
De llamar entremeses las comedias 
Antiguas, donde esta en su fuerza el arte, 

Siendo una accion y entre pleveya gente 
Porque entremes de rey jamas se ha visto. 6s 

Lope here refers, of course, to the Armelina , a comedy and in 
nowise an entremes, which, however, he says these plays were 
called, though on what authority he bases his statement he 
^does not say. It must be admitted that the Arte nucvo gives 
every indication of being a made-to-order composition on a sub¬ 
ject that the author was at best but poorly fitted to handle. He 
certainly does not make clear his idea of the entremes as a literary 


44 Pub. in Bulletin Ilispanique, Vol. III. The citation includes lines 62-73, p. 375. 

*•' A passage that has certain similarity to these lines occurs in the Pasagero of Crist6bal 
Nndrez de Figueroa, p. 75: “Plauto y Terencio fueran, si vivieran hoy, la burla de los teatros, 
el escarnio de la plebe, por haber introducido quien presume saber mds cierto g£nero de farsa 
mcnos culta que gananciosa. . . lntroducianse personas ciudadanas, esto es, comunes; 

no reyes rii principes, con quien se evitan las burlas, Por el decoro que se les debe.” The last words 
carry the explanation that is lacking in the Arte nuevo. It will be seen later that the statement 
about a king never having been seen in the entremes is not absolutely correct. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 25 

form, though by listing the Armelina as a comedta anltgua, 
and, therefore, by implication as an entremis, he seems to class 
all of the older comedies under that heading. This, he asserts, 
is the custom. Perhaps it was true that no one of Lope’s_time 
had any very definite idea in regard to the distinctions of form. 
To Lope, and perhaps to his contemporaries as he says, an 
entremis may have been one of the old comedies, meaning 
those of the preceding generation, and especially those of the 
school of Rueda. If such is the sense of his definition, he is 
not alone. Salas Barbadillo in his Coronas del Parnaso y plato 
de las musas « introduces the part that contains the entremeses 
in the following manner: “Quatro comedias antiguas, que el 
vulgo de Espana llama entremeses.” 

The distinction in the mind of these writers is a real one: 
there is a vast gap between the comedies of the first three- 
quarters of the sixteenth century, and those of the school of 
Lope de Vega. But as a definition of the entremes the state¬ 
ment is altogether wrong. At most, it would have been possible 
to say that the entremes was one form of the comedia anti&ua. 
To class all the earlier sixteenth century comedies as entremeses 
was altogether inaccurate. 

Another step toward a definition is found in the texts of a 
little later date. In the definitions of dramatic technical terms 
given in the Rhythmica of Caramuel, 67 the following is that for 
the entremes: il EntremSs apud hispanos est comoedia brevis, 
in qua actores ingeniose nugantur.” Whether Father Jose 
Alcdzar was acquainted with the Rhythmica , cannot be ascer¬ 
tained with certainty. If not, his definition adds another to 
the long list of literary parallels. He explains: ‘J 'Entremis 
es una comedia breve en la cual los actores se burlan ingeniosa- 
mente.’ He adds somewhat to his definition by saying that 
the ancient mimes were for the express purpose of making the 
auditors laugh, and “a este g6nero de comedia corresponden 


“ Madrid. 1635. Passage cited by Morel-Fatio in La Comtdie espagnole Ju XVlle siiclr, 
p. 36. n. 19. 

•' Second edition. Campanial, 1668. Cit. Sehack, 11. 224n. 

• • ( it. Restori, Fragments de thfdlre espagnol in Revue des longues romanes, Ser. 5. Vol. 1. 
Iho*. j>. 147. This Spanish author wrote "vers 1690." 



26 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 

nuestros entremeses." These statements are undoubtedly true 
so far as they go. The difficulty is that quite as much may be 
said of other forms. The gracioso , in the comedy, “ingeniose 
nUgatur,” and he is for the express and definite purpose of mak¬ 
ing the audience laugh, but his parts do not constitute entremeses. 
Thiere is still lacking a qualitative differentiation. That is sup¬ 
plied in the Dedicatoria of D. Manuel Antonio de Vargas to the 
Entremeses of Benavente 69 where the distinctive feature of the 
form is defined. He speaks of Luis de Benavente as having com¬ 
posed loas and inter medio s , 7 ° and he says that the former were 
parte cuantativa of the comedy, 71 while the latter were an addi¬ 
tion, or substitution for some part of it. Here the writer has 
touched the heart of the distinction between the entremis and 
the farsa, the comedia , or the auto. The entremes is essentially 
dependent in character.. It may be true, as Rouanet says, 72 
that the word 44 au sens propre" does not designate something 
intercalated. 73 Nevertheless, it was from the time of the carros 
used for some sort of an intercalation. 74 But in any case, of one 
thing there can be no doubt: as a literary form, the entremes 
\va«‘always a secondary and dependent genre. There is no 
authentic record of its having been looked upon in Spain in any 
other light. 

The entremes or passo , for the words early became synonymous 
through their use by Timoneda, may, therefore, be defined 
as a short dramatic composition, usually burlesque or farcical 
in character, 75 used as a passing-scene for purposes of comic 

*» Benavente, Entremeses ( ed . Libros de Antotio), Vol. I, p- XXIV. The Dedicatoria in ques- 

. i a eye . 

tiori was written Oct. 22, 1645. 

Intermedia in Spain is a rather unusual and later synonym for entremis. This is in direct 
contrast to Italy where intermedio and intermezzo were used more or less ad libitum. 

' ’ j*Tl®s is interesting regarding the loa. The argument which it contained evidently caused 
MtOjSbc Ibbked upon as an essential, integral part of the play. 

i^lnlermides espagnols, p. I. 

It must not be overlooked, however, that missus is also past participle of milto. 

»« M6rimee, for instance, speaks of the trtteoux ambulants as follows: "Ccs representations 
intercqlies sur le parcours de la procession." 

« The matter of allegory, while it enters the enlremis, is so unimportant as not to call for 
attention in the definition. This is exactly the opposite of the Italian case, where the intermedj 
were for the most part either musical or allegorical, or both. In Spain, there is the one case 
of Timoneda’s Passo de la Razdn y la Fama. In two others, Kama appears, but for comic 
effect. Allegorical, or comico-allegorical passages sometimes occur. Mf>rim6e’s definition 
seeks to Include these also. 




THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


27 



A 


relief. 76 

The genre defined as complementary, grafted upon a more 
important one, the question of its position and use arises as a 
natural consequence. It is found between the prologue and 
the first act, or jornada; it occasionally comes at the close of 
the play; sometimes, especially in the early years of its develop¬ 
ment, it falls within the act itself; but mainly the entremSs, 
when once it had fully rounded out as a form, was used as an 
interlude between the acts. Details concerning these various 
uses must be left for study in connection with the particular 
times and plays in which they occur. Some of the more general 
aspects of the positional relation may, however, be touched 
upon here. In the Vidriana , 77 the following order was observed: 

Introito. 

Jornada I. 

Jornada II. 

passo, lines 604-868. 
main action. 

Jornada III. 

main action. ; * • 

passo, lines 1276-1505. 
main action. 

Jornada IV. 

main action, 
passo, lines 1965-2003. 
main action, 
passo, lines 2063-2185. 
main action. 


’* It may be worth while to cite some of the more modern definitions: ' 

Schack: Entrcmeses, o pequefios dramas burlescos, que se representaban entre las jornadas 
<le an comcdias, o entre la loa y el auto. Su argumento, con ligeras excepciones. est£ tornado 
. a . vida y costumbres de las clases m5s bajas del pueblo . . . Frccuentamente son 

VJ,U pituaciones en bosquejo, escenas sueltas sin enredo drarndtico." 

Houanct. Lentremfs 6tait une courte pidce de th£&tre, buffonne et satirique. a peu prfcs 
i*>ur\u d intrigue, que 1 on repr£sentait entre les actes du drame principal, afin d’engagcr 
< <i>ru. de rcposer 1'attention et de captiver la bienveillance du public. Tel fut. du moins. 
r Krnrr dt ‘ aiwctacle sous sa forme ^I6mentaire et traditionelle.'* 

* ronan. Tratro espafiol del siglo XVI, pp. 171-265. 





28 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


Jornada V. 

main action. 

passo, lines 2465-2709. 

main action. 78 

Here there are five passing-scenes interspersed at irregular 
intervals in the play. Timoneda indicated five in the Colloquio 
de Timbria in the Tabla de los pasos that he appended to the 
comedies of Rueda. 79 It is noteworthy that the number given 
for the various comedies, as indicated in the Tabla , varies all 
the way from one to five. Other early works beside those of 
Rueda and the Vidriana will show the same variation, and the 
same maximum, with perhaps only one exception which shows 
more. The Exatnen sacrum 80 is arranged as follows: 

Loa 

Auto (dgloga) 

entremds (actio intercalaris) 

Auto (suite) 
entremds 
Auto (suite) 

That is to say that, while it is not exactly evenly divided, there 
are two cniremeses spaced as though between acts. Toward the 
close of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the next, 
the usage seems to have been from one to as many as three, even, 
with an auto sacramental . For instance, for August 25, 1603, 
there is record of a “concierto de Nicolds de los Rios, autor 
de comedias . . sobre ir y hacer por la manana 

un auto con dos entremeses" ; 81 and for March 18, 1624, there 
is exactly the same statement. 83 The comedy, on the other 
hand, seems for a time at least to have had regularly three. 
Rojas writes: 81 

hacian cuatro jornadas, 
tres entremeses en ellas. 

Y al fin con un bailecito 
iba la gente contenta. 

’* This is, of course, before the entremfs was distinguished as a definite form. 

1 * Rueda, Obras, II. pp. 137-138. 

*® Biblioteca de autores espafloles, LVIII, p. 133 et. seq. 

'* P6rez Pastor. Nuevos dotos. pp. 80-81. 

Idem, p. 166 and p. 205. 

Viaje entretrnido, I, 145. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


29 


And Lope de Vega affirms him: 84 

Y yo las ( i . e., las comedias) escrivf, de once a doze anos, 
de a cuatro actos y de a cuatro pliegos, 
porque cada acto un pliego contenia: 
y era que entonces en las tres distancias 
se hacian tres pequenos entremeses. 85 

For the year 1604, there is record of the same number being 
contracted for both with a comedy and with an auto: “Obliga- 
ci6n de Juan de Parras . . . de que su padre ir& . . . 

y hard por la manana el auto que hubiere hecho en Madrid 
con tres entremeses y por la tarde una comedia con otros tres 
entremeses.” 86 Attention must be given to the fact that both 
Rojas and Lope de Vega refer to the four-act comedy, and 
that, according to them, an entremes was played in every 
entr’acte. Possibly the last-cited document may have reference 
also to the four-act comedy, although it is not so stated. On 
the other hand, the use of three entremeses with an auto was 
unusual. It serves only to show how far the number used was 
from having hardened into a fixed and settled custom by the 
time of these documents. It seems probable likewise that the 
matter of expense entered into the consideration. Loa , entremes, 
auto: each was paid for, so to speak, by the piece. 87 A well- 
to-do municipality, a wealthy individual or society could afford 
the full luxury of a comedy or auto with loa , entremeses at every 
interval, and when they came into being a little later, bailes. 
A more slender purse must be content with less. However, 
it may safely be said that while the four-act comedy was in 
vogue, the custom, so far as there was one, was to have the 
three entremeses. 

But the number of jornadas to the comedy changed during the 
time of Lope de Vega, and three acts became the accepted 
form of division. It seems that the number of interludes also 


••Arte nuevo in Bulletin Hisp., Ill, p. 379, lines 219-223. 

•’ A document of March 13, 1619 calls for three bailes or three entremeses with each comedy. 
I’rrrz Pastor. Nuevos datos, p. 176. 

*' Pfrez Pastor, Nuevos datos (second series) in Bulletin Hisp., IX, 1907, p. 369. 

’’ Pagfibasc. al concluir el siglo, 100 reales por cada loa, 300 por un entremes y mojiganga. 
■ HH) reales por la musica de los autos, y de 200 a 400 reales por un sainete." Pedroso, intro. 
<■' lUb. de out. esp., Vol. 58, pp. XXIV and XXV. This is somewhat later, but the custom 

t he same. 



30 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


changed. In his Spanish Stage , 88 Dr. Rennert says, “Generally 
two entremeses accompanied a comedia, though sometimes 
even three were played, one following the loa , and the play 
always concluded with a bayle or dance.” 

Lope de Vega speaks of a change in the number : 89 

Y era que entonces en las tres distancias 

se hacian tres pequenos entremeses. 

Y agora apenas uno y luego un bayle. 

What, then, seems to be the final fixed and definite usage is 
found in a play of 1656: 9 ° 

1. Loa de D. Antonio de Solis. 

2. Acto primero de la comedia. 

3. Entremes de Los Volatines (de Solis). 

4. Jornada o acto 2. 

5. Entremes de Juan Rana, poeta. 

6. Jornada 3. 

7. Sarao. 

It may be noted in passing that by this time entremeses and 
bailes were at times used to replace each other between the 
acts, r The two forms, however, were never really confused, 
nor were the terms ever synonymous. 91 

There remains still a word to be said about the position of 
the entremes. That they might begin a play without regard 
to the use of the loa or prologue is made clear by the statement 
of Timoneda as a second heading to the Turiana. 92 In that 
position the entremes may easily be confused with the prologue 
which; at times is also a little playlet, often humorous in con¬ 
tent.” The distinctive feature of the prologue is the argument 


f JfPp n 290-291. 

•* * Arte nuevo, in op. cit., lines 222—224. 

* ••M'TabTe cited from Cotarelo. Coleccidn de entremeses in Nuevo B.de A. II., Vol. XVII. intro., 
p. IV. 

♦' Cf. Cotarelo, op. cit., intro., pp. IV and V. Also note 85 to the present chapter. 

*» "Aqui comiengan muchos passos y entremeses muy graciosos para principios de fargas 
y comedias,” Obras completas, I, 159. 

« The same short introductory playlet, much like an entremes, is found in the French theatre. 
For example. Les Veaulx which, as the Freres Parfaict say, "£toit une esp^ce de Prologue, 
pour amuser les spectateurs les plus impatients, pendant nue les acteurs s habilloient. Text 
in Viollet-Leduc, L’Ancien thf&tre francois, VIII, pp. 232-234. Cit. from Sydow, Die fran- 
zosische Originalkomodie des AT/ Jahrh., p. 14. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


31 


of the play that it contains, and this will usually serve to differ¬ 
entiate it. 94 Rarely the entremSs, even at a late date, takes an 
unwonted position in the play. For instance, at the close of 
the first act of Calderdn’s El castillo de Lindabridis , one is found 
of which Ticknor says, “Calderdn has ingeniously made his 
entremSs serve as a graceful conclusion to one of the acts of his 
principal drama.” 95 But these cases are sporadic. The form 
remains essentially a humorous interlude between the acts. 

It has been said that the entremSs was created for purposes 
of comic relief. Two things served to make some such form 
absolutely essential. At the time of the beginnings of the genre , 
there was the greatest technical poverty and lack of skill on 
the part of the artists, rather artisans, who supplied the material 
for Spain’s early theater. How far they were from having any 
true concept of the rules of their art, one of the most exacting 
after all, will need no explanation for him who has read the 
plays of Spain’s dramatic sixteenth century. This does not 
imply cause for condemnation. An art was in its infancy and 
only struggling to expression. The results of that struggle 
were no worse than in the case of any other people. 96 But poor, 
they certainly were. Some prop for weak comedies was alto¬ 
gether essential. In themselves, they lacked the qualities to 
satisfy either the groundlings or the literati. None of the 
writers of his time recognized this weakness better than S&nchez 
de Badajoz: 

Lo que aqui se ha de decir 
serdn cosas 

devotas y provechosas; 
y porque vos no durm&is 
algunas cosas graciosas 
diremos con que ri&is. 97 

*' U has boon noted that the loa was probably looked upon as an integral part of the play. 

•* Ticknor. History of Spanish Literature, II. 445. 

* 4 That the development is toward a full genre in Spain, and away from it in all the other 
nations <>f Kurope, with the possible exception of Italy, is interesting, but cannot be discussed 
herr. All European literatures of importance had something to correspond at least in a rudi¬ 
mentary form with the entremis. It either came to the point of extinction very early, or was 
reduced to comparative unimportance. 

< ./ ( otarclo, CoIecci6n . . . intro., p. LXI, from the Recopilacidn. 


32 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


And the editor of Benavente strikes the same chord: 98 “de 
modo que el autor que tenia una mala comedia, con ponerle 
dos entremeses deste ingenio, le daba muletas para que no 
cayesfe/ y el que tenia una buena, le ponia alas para que se 
remontcise.” 99 

These and similar statements from the pen of early writers 
might be multiplied, but these will suffice to show the general 
sense of insufficiency that was one of the causes of the creation 
of the genre. 

There were, of course, also more definite technical grounds 
and uses. Most of these will find place for examination in the 
chapters that follow. One quotation that lies just beyond the 
period to be treated may be mentioned in passing. As late as 
1624, the entrernes is spoken of as dividing the jornadas of a 
play. “Una comedia suntuosa . . . entretenida por los 

bayles y entremeses, que sirvieron de dividir y ocupar los espacios 
entre una y otra jornada.” 100 

If the first great cause for the rise of the form to so consider¬ 
able an importance in Spain lies in the writers’ weakness, the 
sbeond and still more insistent is their public. As far back as 
the Utto Christi there is a hint of this: 

Por que no puden estar 
en un rigor toda via 
los archos para tirar, 
suelenlos desenpulgar 
alguna piega del dia; 
plies razon fue declarar 
estas chufas de pastores 
para poder recrear 
despertar y renouar 
la gana de los lectores. 101 

»* Benavente, Entremeses ( ed. Libros de Antaho) Prdlogo al lector, Vol. I, p. XIX. See the 
whole passage, pp. XVIII and XIX. 

For a discussion of the technical poverty that made necessary the intermezzi of the Sacre 
Rappresentazioni, see D’Ancona. Origini, I, 659. 

>•» From a Relacidn among the Papeles varios de la Biblioteca Colombina, Vol. IX. 07. 
Sanchcz-Arjona, El tealro en Sevilla, p. 246, n. I. The play mentioned was given May 16, 
1624. Sflnchez-Arjona gives the same passage also in his Noticias . . . p. 229, n. I. 

in Fr. Ifligo de Mendoza. Vita Christi in Cancionero Castellano del siglo XV, Vol. I. (In 
Kueva Ii. de A. E., Vol. XIX.) 07. also Crawford, Spanish Pastoral Drama, p. 12. 



the rise of a dramatic form 


33 


This, naturally, might quite as well lead in the drama simply 
to the introduction of certain integral comic elements. It 
usually does just that. The important thing for the present 
study is that in Spain it leads to the development of a new form. 
The technical inability of the writers precludes the possibility 
of the working out of integral elements. The dramatists follow 
the line of least resistance, and that leads directly to, the 
entremSs. 

The question of the turbulence of the public and its effect 
on the player or autor recurs again and again in the literature 
of the time. In the Farsa sacramental de las bodas de Espana: 102 

Aqui no basta destreza, 
si no nos da viento en popa; 
porque al que menos tropieza 
le cortan por gentileza 
los auditores la ropa. 

Cristbbal Su&rez de Figueroa in El Pasagero 103 says, “La plebe 
no es menos peligrosa desde sus bancos o grados, 1 ’ and he goes 
on to tell the ways in which the groundlings disturbed or even 
destroyed a play. Rojas in his Viaje entretenido complains 
unceasingly of the difficulty of pleasing the public. And Lope 
de Vega: 

Quede muy pocas vezes el teatro 
sin persona que hable, porque el vulgo 
en aquellas distancias se inquieta. 104 

This goes to the heart of the matter. The writers of plays cast 
about for some means of quieting the public, of filling all gaps. 
The extremes ,—to some extent also the baile ,—is the result. 
C onsidering all things: the inability of the writers along technical 
lines, the coarse, yet exacting public, demanding certain kinds 
of entertainment, but wholly unable to decide from the point 
of view of the merit or demerit of the structure of the play; 
i he necessity in which the author found himself of supplying 


1 * From the loa of play cited. Pub. in B. de A. E., Vol. 58. See the whole passage. 
■ ’ Page 76. 

■ .1 rlc nuevo in Bulletin Hispanique, Vol. Ill, p. 379. 



34 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


something not alone while the play was going on, but in those 
intervals, either within or between the acts, when so far as the 
intrigue was concerned the action must be held back: considering 
all these things, the ctitremSs is perhaps the best answer to the 
need that could have been devised. It is not, as it looks on the 
surface, altogether an expression of weakness. In the long 
run, it may even be a demonstration of skill, if not, certainly, 
of artistry. 

These, then, are the local reasons for the genre. The question 
also arises whether there were not at the same time broader 
historic causes and sources. Here the field must be much less 
certain. The solution of the inception of the idea of a passing- 
scene for relief must be left to a general study of the form in 
European literature. This much is certain: the entremes be¬ 
longs to a general phenomenon once current in all Europe, that 
found its highest growth in the sixteenth century; its climax 
in the first half or two-thirds of the succeeding, and its decline 
before the beginning of the eighteenth. The solution of the 
problem is not to be found by tracing the course of comic material, 
fofc ;pf that only a minor part belongs to the passing-scene, and 
even that part is by no means its exclusive property. The 
distinguishing mark of this movement is that it gave rise to a 
particular form, of any content whatever, 105 incidental in an¬ 
other. The Spanish entremes , and the passing-play in general 
may, as Rudwin says, 106 arise out of the minstrel tradition, and 
the popular spirit of play, but that is scarcely to make a dis¬ 
tinction. The whole modern drama comes from a combination 
of three sources: the church, the minstrel tradition, and the 
popular spirit of play. 107 Traces of the form under consideration 

>»« ln Spain, nearly always, it is comic; in Germany, comic or didactic; in Italy, allegorical 
or musical, sometimes comic. If musical, it became the ancestor of the melodramma. In 
France, it is mainly comic. The English interlude, it has already been said, probably does 
not belong tothe movement. See Chambers, Vol. II. The word interlude may, however, apply 
to plays, or parts of plays, that have the character of entremeses. For instance. Burton speaks 
of Xenophon as” (shutting) up all with a pleasant interlude or dance of Dionysius and Ariadne. 
Anatomy of Melancholy (ed., 1826) II, 274-275. The entremis as a separate miniature play 
to close a larger one has already been mentioned. The bibliography for France or Italy would 
be too long to cite. For Germany, see Hammes. Das Zwischenspiel ... in Literarhis- 
torische. Forschungen, XLV, for the period 1500-1660. 

Origin of the German Carnival Comedy, p. 49. 

••> Humanism later adds the classics, which, however, were not entirely absent either in the 
church or the minstrel tradition. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


35 


are much older in Europe than the sixteenth or even the fifteenth 
centuries, but not in such plays as the Atellanae where they 
have generally been sought. The passing-play of modern 
days does, however, in a few cases retain the function of the 
exodium . Schlegel has called attention to the fact that in 
Euripides the songs are frequently episodical and bear no rela-, 
tion to the action. In his Italic Origins , Toscanelli speaks of 
one of the Greek comedies, Hercules in the Grotto of Pholus , 
ca. 500 B. C., where “la scena pare che finisse in lazzi e mimiche 
grotesche.” 108 In the mysteries, farces and farce scenes were 
intercalated. For instance, “cy apres sont . . . miracles 
de madame sainte Genevieve. Et sachiez que ... a 
parmy farsses entees, afin que le jeu soit mains fade et plus 
plaisans.” 109 In plays like the Jeu de Saint Nicholas of Bodel, 
passing-scenes occur. The quarrel between Connart and Raoul 
over the “crying” of the tavern-keeper’s wine is a scene apaft 
from the real action of the play, whose intrigue is as a whole 
definite and closely knit. 110 

But above all important in a study of the interlude as the 
term is to be understood outside of England, lying at the very 
foundations of the European drama, is a phenomenon that 
occurs in the church service: the tropes. These, from which 
the mediaeval liturgical drama takes its rise, are themselves 
intercalations. They are, of course, not wholly separate from 
the main thesis. Rather, they are enlargements and elucida¬ 
tions in a few cases developing into little playlets. 111 But they 
bear in themselves the germs of a custom: that of making 
interpolations. This is the habit from which springs the 
cntremSs. The so-called textes farcis belong to the same tradi¬ 
tion. 1 ” The tropes themselves are not by any means always 
strictly religious enlargements. The later ones at least are 
at times profane to the point of indecency." 3 Going still farther 

••• Toscanelli. Le Origini ilaliche, I, La Letleratura, p. 299 and passim. 

•••Jubinal. My stores inidits, I. 281. Cil. also D’Ancona, Origini, I, 70, 71 n. 

"• Fines 595-657. 

See for France, the writers on the tropes, Gauthier, etc. For Italy, D’Ancona. 

D’Ancona. Origini, I, 63. 

Many of thc ,ater tropes are trivial, indecent, or profane,” Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, 
II p. x. n. 1. 





36 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


than the tropes, however, are the interpolations known as the 
conductus. They are independent units, essentially musical, 
and not a development at all of the thesis of the text." 4 At 
this point, the same complete separation that is found in the 
interlude is reached. The mock ceremony known as the Boy 
Bishop,, the obispillo , was also a grafting of extraneous elements, 
secular and comic, upon the service of the church on certain 
stated holy-days. In its possible connection with the entremes, 
this spectacle is especially important for Spain because it is 
known to have existed there certainly in the fifteenth century, 
and apparently according to existing documents much earlier." 5 

A form of more or less dramatic intercalation is, therefore, 
the common property of the Middle Ages and the succeeding 
centuries, a heritage that, on occasion, as in the case of the 
entries, was to develop to meet certain needs in the life of the 
dj^arna. That direct necessity in Spain has been discussed in 
the preceding pages. Spain must have had much the same 
dramatic background as the rest of Europe despite the scarcity 
of direct evidence." 6 That being the case, she would have 
possessed long before its earliest traces as a form, the germ of 
the, entremes . To look for any closer source for the beginnings 
of the form is to look only for its application as a piece of dramatic 
technique. Hammes, in a certain sense, is in all likelihood 
correct when he says, “Das Zwischenspiel ist in Deutschland, 
\yi£ in Frankreich, England, Spanien, durchaus selbstandig 
erwachpen und weist erst spat und nicht allgemein, fremde 
?> j. . t Einflusse auf.”" 7 

•There can be no question of influence of the German Zwi- 
schgrpspiel on the entremes between 1500 and 1600. Neverthe¬ 
less, the German form shows a greater similarity to the Spanish 
than .does any other. There are undoubtedly in the two varia- 


Chambers, op. fit., I, 282, n. I. 

"'Crawford, A Note on the Boy Bishop in Spain in Romanic Review , Vol. XIII, 146-154. 
See also Mila y Fontanals, On genes del lealro ratal An in Vol. VI of the Obras complelas, and 
Chambers. Mediaeval Stage, Vol. I. 

1,4 Cejador, llisloria de la lengua y literatura castcllana, I, 40.1. Bonilla and others have 
also expressed the belief that Spain knew the mystery. If so, then the rest of the general 
liturgical backgrounds must have been her property also. 

Hammes, Das Zwischenspiel ... in op. fit., p. 50. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


37 


tions of purpose at times. The German Zwischenspiel has often 
didactic ends in view; the Spanish, practically never. But 
barring such points, the history of one, in its broader outlines, 
might well be used as the history of the other. On the other 
hand, the true Italian intermezzo , older than the entremes , and 
where one might expect to find the source at least of the idea, 
has very little in common with the Spanish entremes. As to the 
influence of the commedia delVarte , there can be no question 
of source at the origins. The roots of the entremes are found 
long before the time of the earliest extant scenario. 11 * More¬ 
over, the scenari as they have come down show a fully-developed 
play with nothing to speak of in common with the entremes 
except the lazzi. 119 The probable influence the latter had on the, 
Spanish form belongs not to its inception, not to the source of 
the idea, but to the development of an already-created form, 
and hence to the succeeding chapters. 

The one possible source in Italy for the idea of the form in, 
Spain is in the “intermedj contadineschi ” of the early Italian 
comedy and the Sacre Rapprescntazioni. They had much the . 
same purpose as the early entremes , and were developed and 
treated in much the same way. 120 Their content, likewise, 
shows many similarities, though, as has been insisted, comic 
content makes the hunt for sources very uncertain. Humor 
and comedy are too universal. 121 In point of time, these intermedj 
were known in Italy long before she sent her troupes of players 
(o Spain, antedating even the time of Encina. As Borghini 
says, “al tempo de’ nostri padri non si faceva commedia, che 


""The oldest scenario dates from the year 1568. Driescn. Ursprung des Ilarlekin, p. I9.t, 
n. 4. Some of the personages, however, like the Zanni date from between 1500 and 1550. 
Idem, p. 193, n. 7. See also D’Ancona, Origini, I, 602, n. 4. Others like Pulcinella belong to 
t he early seventeenth century. Croce, Saggi still a lett. Hal. del Scicenlo, pp. 203 and 207. Dricsen 
of>. dt., p. 230, n. 9. Scherillo, however, feels sure that the Pulcinella “ nacque nel cinqilecenfo.'’" 
l.u commedia dell'arte in Italia, pp. 48-49. 

I'artoli says ( Scenari inedili, intro., p. X), ‘‘la commedia dell’arte £ essenzialmente corn- 
media di intreccio, e sempre d’intreccio ainoro a.” This statement alone suffices to destroy 
all relationship with the early entremis. 

”• See Giannini, Origini del dramma musicale in Propngnatore, XXVI (N. S., Vol. VI) 
l*i. 1, p. 239. 

I' or instance, an intermezzo entitled Una qucslione di dim fatlori that closes the Rappre- 
'•rntazinne di un Pelligrino recalls strongly certain gaming-scenes in the earliest Spanish plays. 

I hese latter are also often passing-scenes. D’Ancona, Sacre Rapprescntazioni, III, 430-433. 



38 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


r « • 

buona parte del riso non dipendesse da un framesso de’ con- 
tadini.” 122 They are simply comic passing-scenes such as will 
be found strewn everywhere in the Spanish plays before Rueda. 

Men like Encina and Torres Naharro with their long Italian 
residence, and their contact with Italian literature must un¬ 
doubtedly have been acquainted with such framessi. They 
must have understood and appreciated the technique of those 
scenes. There is, however, no proof that they copied them 
directly. In fact, there is proof that at least Rueda among 
the early writers avoided the comic passages in the plays he 
translated for the Spanish stage, substituting for them his own. 
Yet Encina and his followers would not be altogether forgetful 
of what they had seen and known in Italy. That knowledge 
would naturally be the source of their idea, and they would 
adapt their own material to scenes of a similar nature. And 
here, it seems most probable, was where Spain received the 
first outside impulse for the creation of the form . What she bor¬ 
rowed was an idea, linking it with her own liturgical back¬ 
grounds so far as they may have existed, and to her internal 
needs and conditions. 123 

With these foundation steps in mind, it is possible to pass to 
a consideration of the actual creation of the literary form in 
Splairi in the closing years of the fifteenth and the early years 
of the sixteenth centuries. 


’*• Ctt. D’Ancona, Origini, I. 602. 

•* J The mediaeval popular farce must not pass unmentioned. Brander Matthews says of 
these playlets, “The crude farces of these wandering minstrels may have been mere dramatized 
anecdotes, practical jokes in dialogue, pantomimic horse-play of an elementary type; they 
were wholly unliterary, and, being often even unwritten, they have rarely been preserved." 
The Mediaeval Drama in Modern Philology, I, p. 80. This sounds close to the entremfs which, 
as far as material goes, is often a “practical joke in dialogue” or a “dramatized anecdote.” 
But the piere fact that the two are alike as regards material does not offer any real proof of 
anything in particular. Farce material is too general a property. Moreover, there is nothing 
to show that these were in any sense of the word passing-plays, and its secondary character 
is in the last analysis the distinguishing feature of the form in Spain. The strong similarity 
may be due at least in part to the fact that the wandering minstrel of the old days and the 
Spanish dramatist were both doing the same thing: drawing comic material from the life of 
the people. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


39 


II 

Development Before Lope de Rueda 1 

Long before the name by which it was to be known was 
applied to it, the form existed, though often in only the most 
rudimentary way. Scenes that are in every wise entremeses 
are found frequently in Spanish plays of the first half of the 
sixteenth century. In considering such passages, especially 
in the early years of their development before they can be looked 
upon as forming a well-established literary genre , one of the 
most important considerations is their essentially 3 dependent 
character. What must first and above all determine whether 
a given passage is or is not entremSs in character, is its inter¬ 
calation as essentially independent of the plot of the play. 
Other than this, the delimitations of these scenes are by no 
means fixed and definite. It must be understood, moreover, 
that in most cases the early writers did not in all probability 
look upon them as actual entremeses. Nevertheless, whether 
looked upon as such or not, these detached passages contain 
in germ the future entrernes, and cannot be ignored in a con¬ 
sideration of its origin and development. 

A search for the earliest traces of what was to become a literary • 
form of considerable importance leads back to Encina. The 
Carnival Eclogues, published in the Cancionero of 1496, and 
dating back to 1494 for their first presentation, show certain 
characteristics, at least in subject-matter, that will be common 
to many entremeses of subsequent date, and Kohler has looked 
upon them as forerunners of the type. 3 There is, however, 
one vital objection to counting these eclogues as true proto¬ 
types of the passo. They can scarcely be considered comic- 
relief, or passing-scenes: they form individual plays in them¬ 
selves. 


' The subject of the present chapter was treated in part in an article by the author entitled 
I>rvrlopment of the Entremis before Lope de Rueda, pub. in Publ. of the Modern Language Asso» 
i at ion of America. Vol. XXXVII. No. 2, 1922. pp. 187-207. 

1 The importance of this qualifying adverb will be made clear in the present chapter. 

1 Kohler, Representaciones de Juan del Encina, p. 11 




40 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


The second J Kgloga representada en requesta de unos amores 
begins with a passage that serves as an introduction, and the 
second scene continues the argument of the preceding eclogue. 
We are told that a year has passed. Here the author seems 
to have felt the need of dividing his composition. It is at such 
a point, as between two jornadas> that at a later date the in¬ 
sertion of an entremSs might be expected. The passo as such 
did not exist at the time, but Encina inserted a song and dance 
after Gil had said: 

D6jate de sermonar 
en esto, que est& escusado. 

D6monos a gasajado: 
a cantar, danzar, bailar. 

It would appear, then, that Encina feared a wavering of interest 
on the part of his audience at this critical point, either from 
attention too long sustained, or lest his material lacked sufficient 
dramatic intensity. It is from just such technical considera¬ 
tions &s the desire to introduce more variety, or sometimes to 
divide scenes, that the entremes takes its rise and develops. 
In, the works of Lucas Fernandez, who wrote probably only a 
few. years later than these earlier eclogues of Encina, exactly 
the same thing occurs. In one of his plays, 4 after a dialogue 
between Bras Gil and Beringuella, they break off the conversa¬ 
tion, dance and sing, 5 and then with the appearance of a new 
personage, the course of the action continues. 6 Still another 
example is found in the Eploga real of Fernando de Prado, 
played before Charles I in December, 1517, 7 where a villancico 
— » .) J 1 

4 Comedia hecha por Lucas Fern&ndez, ca . 1500. 

* The use of intermedi di musica was the regular tiling in the more pretentious Italian plays 
of the'whole sixteenth century, and the insertion of music or singing interspersed in, but not 
connected with, the plot of the play is, according to every indication, much older. It is quite 
possible that Encina. and perhaps some of the other early dramatists of Spain, steeped in 
Italian culture, found there their ideas for the interludes here under discussion. That they 
lack the pomp and importance of those found in Italy is in line with the whole situation of the 
drama in the respective countries. 

• This use of music to relieve the tension of a situation in a drama or to gain the good-will 
of an audience is of ancient and far-reaching use. The Greek chorus, especially where the 
music does not relate to the main action (see Chapter I), seems to have had some such pur¬ 
pose. Music to win the good-will of an audience for a play is found even in Hindu literature. 
Witness the prologue to the Sakoontala. 

» Kohler, .S ’iebert spanische. dramatische F.klogen, in Vol. XXVII, Gcscllschaft fur romavisrhe 
Literatur, p. 158. Dresden. 1911. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


41 


in praise of the king is inserted. Some sort of a break for relief 
is all the more necessary here in view of the poverty of the 
action. 8 While it cannot be called in any sense comic, it is 
none the less a relief scene, and shows the general need and 
tendency that lead to the inception of the entrernes. 

In the Egloga de tres pastores, 9 whose source is the second 
eclogue of Antonio Tebaldeo, 10 one scene shows certain relation¬ 
ships to the entrerr.es. Fileno loves Cefira. With the impas¬ 
sioned eloquence of a lover, he recounts to Zambardo the woes, 
of his unrequited love. But the latter is a dullard, ajld as Fileno 
rises in eloquence, his companion falls asleep. Fileno arouses 
him. Again he sleeps, to be reawakened, stupid with drowsi¬ 
ness and babbling nonsense. This so-called “sleeping-scene” 
forms Fncina’s only real addition to his Italian original. Neither 
such a scene nor the character Zambardo appears in the eclogue 
of Tebaldeo. In the Spanish play, the whole passage bears no 
relation to the intrigue. In fact, its comic content serves to 
form a contrast to this first of Spanish tragedies. It seems to 
have been this variety, later secured by the insertion of an 
entremes , that Encina sought to attain,” and in so doing he at 
least approaches the genre. 

The Auto del Repelon which, like the Egloga dc tres pastores, 
is included first in the Cancionero of 1509, has often been con^ 
sidered one of the earliest entr emeses. It undoubtedly does 
show many characteristics of the form, and might easily have 
been used as an entremes. The great objection to looking upon 
it as belonging to the type is, as in the case of the Carnival 
Fclogues already mentioned, that it probably was written not 
as a passing-scene for purposes of comic relief, but to constitute 
a completely independent play with no subordinate function 
in a larger dramatic form. But while this play does not in 
itself belong to the type, its content is such that it must have 
had an influence on the development of the entremes. In fact, 


' I firm, p. 157. 

• Kohler thinks it was probably composed between 1507 and 1509. It appears first in the 
( anrionrro of 1509. Cf. Representociones de Juan del Encina. in Biblioteca Romanico intro., 
t> 10. 

” f rawford, Spanish Pastoral Drama, p. 34. 

" Crawford, idem. p. 35. 





42 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


there are passing-scenes, subsequently written, that recall it 
strongly, though they cannot be said to have been copied directly. 
In this sense, therefore, Kohler, 12 Ford, 13 Cotarelo, 14 and others 
have not been altogether unjustified in speaking of its relation 
to the entrernes. 

Wherv in 1513 Encina gave his Pldcida y Vitoriano at the 
home of Cardinal Arborea in Rome, 15 he used in three of its 
scenes material that shows the type of the entremSs. As com¬ 
pared to the developed form, they are naturally rather crude, 
and they present no dramatic unity, but the whole purpose of 
the author seems to have been to break the thread of the plot 
with relief-scenes, and that, as has been seen, is in the last 
analysis the chief distinguishing feature of the early form. 

The first of these scenes, between Flugencia and the bawd 
Eritea, shows clearly the influence of the Celestina. Both 
Placida and Vitoriano feel that the love they bear each for the 
other is unrequited. Suplicio counsels Vitoriano to make love 
to another as a means of forgetting Placida. He accepts the 
suggestion and courts Flugencia. All this forms a long series 
of monologue and dialogue of serious nature. It is abruptly 
at this point, as a relief-scene and wholly apart from the action 
of the play, that the passage in question occurs. Its coarse 
wit furnishes the strongest possible contrast to the main intrigue. 

The second scene of the kind forms a contrast between the 
courtly conception of love and the rough manners of the shep¬ 
herds as conceived by Encina, and by no means pictured after 

11 Sieben spanische dramalisehe Iildogen, p. 121. Kohler thinks he can find Italian influence 
oh fthfe auto. So far as the actual material is concerned, the subject was certainly extremely 
familiar in the time in which it was written, so familiar that a purely literary source does 
not seem necessary. Encina needed only the faintest trace of the power to observe to find his 
material ready at hand. 

Main Currents of Spanish Literature, p. 108. 

*« Esludios de hisloria literaria, I, 181; also p. 167. 

»s Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcellos doubts the possibility of dating this play from the 
oft-cited letter of Stazio Gadio. Cf. Revista de filologta espahola, V, 1918, pp. 337-366, where 
she says, “Atendendo as ultimas frascs da carta, que todos alegam convictos, a favor da sua 
hipotesi, julgando que a frast sobre as formas e acidentes de amor indica o assunto da comedia, 
cu acho todavia muito duvidoso, e de maneira nenhuma indubitavel, que a representada fosse 
a de Placida y Vitoriano.” (P. 362.) For the opposite view, see Cotarelo. Esttidios de hisloria 
literaria, 1, 128-29 and n., and also Menendcz y Pelayo, Antologia, VI, p. IX. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


43 


nature. 16 Vitoriano and Suplicio are hunting for Placida who 
has disappeared. In their quest, they seek information of the 
shepherds Gil and Pascual. So far the author seems to have 
tried to relate the passing-scene to the eclogue. He but serves 
to accentuate the fact that he is groping; the type is not yet 
established. The lover and his friend leave, following the 
directions of the shepherds. Gil expresses sympathy for the 
unhappy lovers; Pascual retorts impatiently, and then suggests 
a game of cards. They play, and Gil loses, remarking philo¬ 
sophically over his want of luck: 

Mas h&gate buen provecho 
que perdiendo he de aprender. 

They hear some sounds, and uncertain whence they come, 
decide to investigate, but Gil’s legs are benumbed, and he can¬ 
not walk fast. A villancico to Amor closes the scene. 

The third passage which closely approaches the entrernes 
follows the Vigilia de la enamorada muerta. Gil and Pascual 
are gathering flowers for a garland, as Gil says “A tus amores,” 
but with at least a connotating remembrance of the dead Placida. 
The touch seems rather artistic, but undeveloped. Suplicio 
enters, lamenting her death. The shepherds take him for a 
thief. After he has explained his mission, they refuse to go 
with him until they shall have taken a nap, and when Suplicio 
protests, Pascual cries out: 

Velad si quisierdes vos, 
mas ten£ la lengua queda. 

Suplicio consents to the arrangement. Thereupon the scene 
changes to where the body of Placida lies. 

The comic content of the passage is not great. It recalls 
(he sleeping-scene of the Egloga de tres pastores. Here again 
shepherds, unable to understand the nature of the sufferings 
of a courtly lover, sufferings in this case related by a friend, are 


“Such a misconception of the courtly idea of love is found also in a Zwischen spiel of the 
Spiel von Appius und Claudius. Of this scene, Hamines says “ Die zweite Szene (i. e.. Zwisch- 
enszcne) nimmt Bezug auf die Haupthandlung, indeni Heinj mit komischer Entst Hung 
dcr Vorgange sicli wundert. dasz zwei Manner sich urn ein Madchen streiten konnten; er 
wurdo sein zankisches Weib sofort cinein anderen abtreten.” Pus Zu'isrhett spiel . . . ’ in 

op. cil., p. 22. The analogy between the two is rather close. 



44 THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 

overcome by sleep. Its chief importance in a study of the 
ehtfernes is that it has no real connection with the eclogue, 
and the purpose seems to be only for comic relief after the 
recital of the long vigilia. 

"Th e'Egloga ynterlocutoria of Diego de Avila, a play of early 
date,' 1 ' 7, has several scenes that show a relation to the entremSs. 
The first of these is a sleeping-scene recalling to a considerable 
extent the one in the Egloga dc tres pastores. Tenorio, a shepherd, 
is fast asleep. When Benito, a match-maker, tries to arouse 
him in order to discuss with him a marriage he proposes to 
bring about between Turpina and Tenorio, the latter babbles 
nonsense, and cannot be awakened. The scene is for comic 
effect, and bears no more relation to the play than did the one 
cited from Encina. 

Another wholly detached scene is that which begins with the 
stage-direction “aqui comienza a alabar al Gran Capitan, 
lines 528 to 580. Tenorio brings it to a close with the observa- 
tjpn: 

p ; Queres saber, padre, que tengo pensado? 

Que entramos a dos tomais por remedio 
d’estaros metiendo palabras en medio, 
porqu’este mi hecho se quede olvidado. 

This is not, however, a comic-relief scene, and does not, save 
for its detachment from the play, belong to the entremes. 

The scene between Toribuelo and Hontoya, lines 641 to 706, 
forms a true comic-relief dialogue. Toribuelo enters asking 
Hontoya, Tenorio’s father, for the keys on the pretext that his 
j son needs them to get his Sunday clothes. The key secured, 
Toribuelo takes advantage of his chance to make away with 
.Hontoya’s whole stock of wine, and Tenorio enters dressed in 
his best, showing that Toribuelo’s excuse was merely a trick. 

Yet in spite of the presence of such scenes in considerable 
numbers, it is certain that as late as 1513 they were not looked 
upon as cntremescs , nor had that name yet been given to a 
dramatic form. In that year, Lebrija in his dictionary defines, 
“entremes de La Tarasca—Manducus. That is all the 


Kohler dates it prior to 1511. Cf. Sieben spanische drnmalische Eklogtn. in pub. at., p. 168. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


45 


definition he had to give, and it is clear that he still associated 
the word with those mummings and carnival shows in connec¬ 
tion with which it was discussed in the previous chapter . 18 

The dramatic works of Lucas Ferndndez offer no material 
for a study of the form except for the single instance that ha§ 
already been mentioned. Comedy constitutes an inherent 
part of his plays, either to bring about an explanation of religious 
doctrines or to contrast courtly manners with the ignorance of 
the peasants as long-standing aristocratic traditions conceived 
them. It does not appear in the form of detached passing- 
scenes. It is to Torres Naharro, who in so many respects antici¬ 
pated the dramas of the following century, that one must turn 
in a study of experiments in the new form. The entremes, in 
so far as the detached scenes belong to the genre , exists in con¬ 
siderable numbers in his plays, though still not looked upon 
as a form complete in itself. 

In the Comedia Serafina , the trick scene in the fourth jornada 
has no organic connection with the plot of the play, and forms 
an episode that will compare favorably with some of the e«- 
tremeses of fifty years later. Comedo and Lenicio, two servants, 
meet. The former talks a macaronic Latin. Lenicio tells him 
that Dorosia has said to her mistress that Gomecio is infatuated 
with her. Gomecio is incredulous, and Lenicio promises to 
assure his lady’s favor by an incantation. He ties the dupe’s 
fingers, and utters the formula, composed, as he says, of “ciertas 
palabras caldeas, in reality a jargon. Then he deserts Gomecio, 
leaving him tied. In response to the latter’s cries, Teodoro, 
the friar, appears and Gomecio receives at his hands the reward 
of his credulity while Lenicio gloats over the success of his 
practical joke. 

The servant-scene in the first jornada 1 ’ is unrelated to the 
plot, but belongs to a sub-plot which connects with the scene 
discussed from the fourth jornada. It has a certain technical 
purpose in that during the latter part of it Dorosia is supposed 

" Bonilla y San Martin, Las Bacantes, pp. 86-87, and 86. n. 5. 

” Propaladia, I. pp. 144-148. The passing scene begins with the speech of Lenicio “ Primero 
me b'-saras. • • ” A » references to the Propaladia are to the edition in the Libras dr 





46 THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 

to deliver a message from her mistress to Floristan. Such 
technical purposes are frequently filled by the device of passing- 
scenes in the early plays not alone in Spain, but in Europe in 
general. The situation, moreover, while crude and undeveloped, 
if of h nature to place the scene in question with the beginnings 
of The entremes . 

V The second and fourth jornadas of the Comedia Trofea are in 
reality entremeses. Both are quite separate from the intrigue 
of the play. The first introduces two gardeners and a page. 
An interesting feature of this is its division into two parts by 
a song 5 ‘and dance. Such scenes are slowly crystallizing in form 
and adopting the various dramatic devices. The scene of the 
fourth jornada , while it has no relation to the play itself, is 
slightly prepared by the closing lines of the second. In content, 
it is perhaps scarcely entremes , although it plays the part of one. 
To the two gardeners of the second jornada are added two others, 

- Mingo Oveja and Gil Bragado. The four offer gifts to the 
prince, Don Juan. It includes a typical quarrel arising over the 
•question of whose right it is to speak, and a misunderstanding 
6n the part of the four personages as to what disposition court 
custom requires should be made of the presents. This is but a 
variation of the misunderstanding of courtly love as a theme 
in the contrasts of Pldcida y Vitoriano. Some break of the sort 
offered by this jornada is more than obligatory in view of the 

- 'Poverty G f the action. The first jornada is at best no very ani- 
- mated dialogue. Much of it is composed of long-winded speeches. 

.The third jornada is a single monologue of 280 lines. The passing- 

scenes serve to relieve and animate this background. The whole 
forms an entirely typical situation for the rise of the genre, 
its it would be hard to find a better setting for its earliest traces, 

' or 2 t clearer example of its first uses and purpose. 

In the last jornada of the same play, the scene in which Mingo 
borrows the wings of Fame, and comes to grief when he attempts 
to fly is also really an entremes in both material and character 
as 'Cvell as separability. If it may be so regarded, it is probably 
the earliest example of such a scene used at the close of a play. 

In both the Comedia Soldadesca and the Comedia Tinellana , 
it is extremely difficult to determine what scenes may be looked 


THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


47 


upon as entremeses. Many in character and content are what 
seem to be passing-scenes, but the very nature of the subjects 
of these plays affords a chance for the introduction of loosely 
connected, or even wholly disconnected scenes that have never¬ 
theless their justification and belong to the plot, if plot there is, 
in that they lend to the picture that the author is presenting. 
To that extent they become integral parts of the whole, and 
the fact that they may be separated from the play is in this 
case scarcely sufficient in itself to justify classing them as en¬ 
tremeses. Some of them, however, contain excellent material 
for the form as that, for instance, in the Comedia Soldadesca 
in which some soldiers strive to force the landlord to supply 
their wants. 

In the fifth jornada of the Comedia Jacinta , there is a scene 
that recalls to a considerable extent the intermedi di contadini 
of the earliest Italian plays. It is very much like a written and 
extended lazzo. The lady Divina is interviewing the travellers 
who have been brought to the castle at her command. One 
of these, named Precioso, bursts out in a tirade against the 
corruption of Roman manners and morals, and Pagano, a 
rustico , who has much in common with the landsknecht of the 
German Zwischenspicl and with the contadino of the early 
Italian plays, makes a witty reply. The traveller answers, and 
Pagano becomes impertinent until his mistress punishes him 
with a blow for a coarse remark that he has made. Thereupon 
the thread of the main action is taken up again. The whole 
scene 20 is entirely foreign to the action. It forms an entremSs 
and, as has been said, seems not unlike the lazzi so far as one 
may judge what they were. 21 

The Comedia Calamita contains abundant material that 
closely resembles the entremeses of a little later date, but in the 
main so skilfully blended with the action as to make it in¬ 
separable from the p’ay. Torcazo, the simple; his wife, and the 

” Propaladia, II, pp. 115-120. 

" Scherillo has called attention to the impossibility of deciding how far the lazzi became 
sources, even in Italy, for the written comedy. They were, as he says, "sempre solamente 
uccennati.” La Commedia dell'arte in Italia, p. 23. In the case of Torres Naharro now under 
consideration, there can be no question of a source other than the probable one of his idea. 



48 


THE EARLY ENTREMLS IN SPAIN: 


young student are types that will figure in the passos of Lope 
de Rueda. The trick that Iusquino plays on Torcazo in passing 
himself off as a relative is such as frequently occurs in the cn- 
tr ernes in its developed form. On the whole, it would seem not 
unlikely that both in the matter of types and material it, in 
common with several scenes in this comedy, had a certain influ¬ 
ence on the development of the form. As it stands here, how¬ 
ever, it belongs to the action. The same may be said of the 
trick that Fileo plays on Torcazo in the second jornada. It 
also belongs to the play—by grace!—and yet it is extra¬ 
ordinarily in the manner of the passos of Rueda. So much is 
this the case, that one must wonder whether inspiration for the 
latter may not have been in some measure derived from it. 

One scene, however, in this play seems to have all the elements 
of the entrernes. It occurs in the fifth jornada while Euticio 
is waiting for his son to come out so that he can settle with 
Him, the term being understood in the true parental sense. 
Iusquino persuades Torcazo to feign himself dead. This ar¬ 
ranged, the former sets up an outcry. In response to his calls, 
Libina, Torcazo’s wife, and the student enter, and in reply to 
Libina’s lament, the student replies: 

Callarte cumple a fe 
por mi amor; 
mu£rase, qu’es un traidor 
, t> . de tu placer enemigo: 

yo me casare contigo 
y aun te servire mejor. 

Whereupon Torcazo arises from his pretended swoon, filled 
with wrath and much to the discomfiture of the student and 
his wife. In passing, it may be noted that this scene is not 
original with Torres Naharro. Its source is found in La 
Calandria of Bibbiena.” 

But although only this one scene is actually separable from 
, the play, and for that reason the rest may not be accounted true 
; entremeses , the entire action between Libina, Torcazo, Iusquino, 

« Flamini, II Cinquecento, p. 317 and Crawford. Note on the "Comedia Calamita" of Torres 
Naharro in Mod. Lang. Notes, Vol. XXXVI, p. 17. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 49 

and the student forms a subordinate plot in itself, only more or 
less loosely related to the main intrigue. In connection with 
a play of somewhat later date, to be examined shortly, atten¬ 
tion will be called again to this fact in its possible relation to the 
development of the entremes. 

In the Comedia Ayuilana , the second jornada is entirely 
separable from the play and forms an entremts despite the fact 
that the author seems to have wanted to give it a certain con¬ 
nection by the closing lines in which Dileta delivers a message 
to Aquilano from her mistress, a message, by the way, of no 
importance, since it is simply to tell Aquilano that Felicina 
wants him to come alone and early to the rendezvous his 
lady had given him on their parting. 2 * Nor does the fact that 
the traces the gardener finds are those made by the lover in his 
clandestine visit to his sweetheart 24 make it any the less a passing- 
scene, inasmuch as the discovery leads to nothing of importance 
for the plot. It is, as has already been shown in several eases, 
not uncommon to find these comic-relief scenes given a semblance 
of relationship to the play in some such manner as this by lhe 
early writers. In this passage, the personages, two gardeners, 
a servant, and a maid-servant, are types that have already been 
found in similar scenes by the same author. The argument is 
as follows: two gardeners while at work find footprints in the 
garden. Galterio fears the loss of his wages because of the 
damage done by the intruder. The scene is one of the earliest 
to offer a definite discussion of social conditions. Dandario 
closes it with the words: 

Desos vienen 

los que mas pompa mantienen. 

Y aquellos contino veo 
mas tristes por lo que tienen 
que yo por lo que deseo. 

Dileta, the maid, enters asking for Faceto, and the latter part 
of the jornada is a dialogue between the two. While the scene 
is an en tremes in its separable character and from the types it 


*» PropalaJia, II, 258. 

’* Sec the argument. Profialadia, II, 239. 




50 THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 

portrays, the comparative seriousness of its tone seems to 
remove it somewhat from the form. It is from this gardener 
scene, as well as from certain other passages in Torres Naharro, 
that Jayme de Guete drew the inspiration, if not the actual 
material, for some of his passos. 
t'trf the fourth jornada of the same play is a scene that may 
be reckoned as belonging to the nascent form in that its only 
real purpose is the technical one of allowing a lapse of time. 
It occurs between the point at which the king sends a page for 
the ladies, and their entrance. 25 There is a semblance of rela¬ 
tionship to the plot attempted when the king says that the fun- 
making is needful, something should be done to mitigate 
Aquilano’s suffering: but this is only a pretext. The content 
is entirely unimportant. The more or less coarse humor of the 
gairkicner furnishes the subject matter. Its remoteness from the 
intrigue of the play is more than clear at the close when one of 
the doctors says: 

i - Pues nos habeis alegrado, 

• yos digo ques cosa sana 

ir a comer un bocado 
'-’O y a beber por la manana, 

and sends them off with a gratuity for their services. It is no 
longer Aquilano who is thought of. The doctor says “nos, 
and that nos can fairly be taken to mean audience as well as 
actbrs. 

This technical use of a passing-scene to allow a necessary 
lapse of time, possibly found here for the first time in the Spanish 
theater, will be observed time and again as the entremes develops. 
It may, perhaps, be due in some measure to the helplessness 
and technical weaknesses of the writers of the time. It is, 
however, a device that belongs to a study of the passing-scene, 
not alone in Spain, but wherever such scenes are found. Pas¬ 
sages of the sort, or musical interludes, whose main purpose is 
to allow either the time for the delivery of a message, or for a 
happening not actually presented on the stage, or to indicate 
a journey from one place to another, whether near or far, are 


«j / J ropaladia, II, 310-314. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


51 


found in the plays of France, Italy, and Germany, and could 
be traced through the length and breadth of Europe. They 
are found in Italy at least as early as the Sacre rappresentazionil 26 
and it is possible that from there they found their way out to 
other lands, or again it may be simply one of the freak tricks 
of analogy. For Spain, only this much may be said: Torres 
Naharro who first used the passing-scene there in this way 
was undoubtedly familiar with Italian plays . 37 

From this outline of some of the principal passages that 
may be looked upon as bearing a relation to the entremSs , it 
will be seen how extensive was Torres Naharro’s contribution 
to the development of the form . 38 As regards character types, 
he has servants, a maid-servant, a friar, a page, gardeners, a 
simple and his wife, a student, and the allegorical personage 
Fame, the last-named used, however, for comic effect, and 
not for the sake of allegory. In the passos of Rueda, appear 
the type of lackey to correspond somewhat with the servant, 
the fregona who may be more or less equivalent to the maid¬ 
servant of Torres Naharro, the page, the simple and his wife, 
a friar, beside other clerical characters, a gardener, and the 
allegorical personage, Fame. Just how far Torres Naharro 
may be considered a creator of types it is not possible to decide, 
but the fact remains that in his works are to be found at least 
a majority of the more important ones that appear in the 
cntremh during the next half-century. Nor is his contribution 
confined to types as a glance at the material of his followers 
will show. < V 

One of the most important of these, so far as the entremes 
is concerned, is Jayme de Giiete. Yet, however he may follow 


,6 See the Sant’ Or$ola, Vol. 2 of D’Ancona, Sacre Rappresentazioni. 

” For some such scenes: D’Ancona, Origirti, I, 469-70; D’Ancona, Misleri e sacrg roppres.. 
in Giornale Sior., XIV, pp. 148-49; Solerti, Le Origini del Melodramma . pp. 7-8; Hammes. 
Das Zwischenspiel ... in op. cit., pp. 50-51 and passim. Italian comedy was probably 
known in Germany as early as 1507. D;Ancona, II leatro mantovano ... in Giornale 
Slnrico, VI, p. 23, n. 3. 

’* Rouanct is, therefore, far from stating the facts of the case when he says. “Chez.les suc- 
cesseurs directs de Juan del Encina 1’on perd toute trace des intermddes. . . . L’6lement 

comique, dans les oeuvres de Gil Vicente et de Torres Naharro, se m61e & des actions principals 
assez etendues et, par consequent, ne relive pas de la farce.” Intermides espagnols du XVIIe 

'•iicle, p. 9. 



52 


THE EARLY ENT REM&S IN SPAIN: 


h ; , t . 

Tt^rjes Naharro, he completely misunderstood his master s 

art,. Had he known how to weave his comedy into his plot 
as so often happens in the Propaladia, his development might 
have been entirely away from the separate scene from which 
the entremes develops. 

In Jt,he first jornada of the Comedia Tesorina, the comic scenes 
between Citeria and her mistress, Lucina, and between Citeria 
aqd the foul-mouthed Gilyracho present in their comedy and 
general aspects many of the elements of the early entremes. 
Moreover, they serve no real purpose in the play unless it be to 
introduce the characters, hardly a sufficient justification even 
in view of the undeveloped state of the drama of the time. 
In the third jornada , lines 1106 to 1404, there is an entremes , 
a scene wholly unrelated to the play. Gilyracho, who is the 
typical pimple, enters riding a donkey. He tries to take a nap, 
but a thousand things • torment him. He beats about him, 
exclaiming: 

Malhadades, 

que moscas tan endiabladas! 

'-.‘Tf- -KV . . 

o que negras picazones! 
o hy de puta, y que piojadas 
que siento en estos ancones! 

While he i.s thus engaged, he loses his donkey. Perogrillo enters, 
and Gilyracho in answer to his question says, “mi negro burro 
^he.'perdido.” “Then you have two?” asks Perogrillo. “No,” 
is the reply. 

Pero. Pues esse burro en que vienes 
cuyo es? No es de nenguno? 

Like the conventional simple , he has been looking for that which 
was not lost. 

The scenes that follow this rather long passo are crude to 
an extreme, and the humor lies in the foul language, macaronic 
Latin, after the manner of Torres Naharro, and a contest in 
abuse, a common form of comedy in the early Spanish theatre. 29 
In the Comedia Vidriana , the structure of which is so loose 

>* Crawford, Echnrse Pullas: A Popular form of Tenzone, in Romanic Review, VI, 150-164. 
Also Rouanct, Calee don tie autos, far sas, etc., IV, 171. 




THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


53 


that it can scarcely be termed a play, no less than five of the 
scenes show a lack of relationship to the intrigue. This number 
of comic-relief scenes in a play is probably equalled or surpassed 
in only two others, the Colloquio de Tymbria of Rueda where 
five are pointed out, and in the Farsa Salamantina of Bartolom6 
Palau. They are as follows: Jornada II, lines 604 to 770; jornada 
III, lines 1276 to 1505 (This entremes might be entitled La 
Cam de piojos!); jornada IV, lines 1965 to 2003, a very short 
scene of the kind; lines 2063 to 2185; and jornada V, lines 2465 
to 2705. The first of these introduces a shepherd riding a 
donkey. Cetina, a servant, enters, and the inevitable quarrel 
between the two ensues. It is the rough, coarse comedy of the 
relief-scene. The second is sufficiently described by the title 
suggested above. The third, a very short scene, is a quarrel 
between mistress and servant. In the fourth, a chattering'and 
selfish gardener argues with his master, and when after a hot 
dispute they quarrel, he threatens to leave. In the last, Gil 
Lanudo in a long monologue imagines himself a soldier, and 
acts the part much after the manner of the modern small boy 
playing soldier. 30 It forms a sort of mockery on the ‘Miles 
Gloriosus theme, a parody of the bravado of the soldier, so 
favorite a figure on the Italian, and indeed the European comedy 
stage of the sixteenth century. This is the earliest faint trace of 
the type in the entremes for, as has been said, Torres Naharro’s 
Comedia Soldadesca does not offer actual passing-scenes. The 
source of this type has been the subject of much discussion. 31 
It is one of the early ones of the Italian theater and the commedia 
dell’arte. 33 The scene in question continues with the entry of 


A very similar motif is found in a German Zwischenspicl, but of later date, where Hans 
"riihmt sich, init Schild und Schwert gerdstet seines Mutes. . . ” Hammes, Dos Zwi- 

zchenspiel ... in Literarhistorische Forschungen, XLV, p. 64. 

" For the Italian miles, see among others. Caravelli, Chiacchiere Cntiche, article on Traditioni 
dramm. popolare, pp. 80-82; D'Ancona, Origini, I, 590-91, and note 4. and II. 135; D’Aneona. 
II tealro mantovono ... in Giornole Storico, VI; Scherillo. La Commedia dell' arte in 
Italia, passim; Feat, Der Miles Gloriosus, passim. For French Fanfarron: Toldo. fttudes 
sur let heatre comique francais du moyen Age in Studi di filologia romanza, IX. pp. 277, et. seq. 
For Spain, Crawford, The Braggart Soldier in the Spanish Drama in Rom. Rev., II. 1011. See 
also Rudwin, Origin of the German Carnival Comedy, p. 46. , 

Scherillo. La Commedia dell'arte in Italia, p. 96. Fest (Der Miles Gloriosus) says, "Die 
ersten ilalienischen Kapitiine stammen aus dem 15. Jahrh. Literarisch linden wir sie erst 
etwas spater, namlich auerst in dem Spanier Giglio der Ingannati (1531)." 




54 THE EARLY ENTREMFS IN SPAIN: 

: M > •_>, ( . 

^Perucho. A fight ensues, and Gil, worsted, goes off calling for 
Cetina. 

The Tragedia llamada Josefina may belong to the first quarter 
? .pf the sixteenth century. 33 It contains a number of scenes 
: that, [While not strictly belonging to the entremes as it is found 
An Spain, are of the general class of separate scenes. At the end 
qf each act, or parte , is a chorus of maidens which either sums 
up f th^ argument of the act, or moralizes on its lesson. It will 
be noted a little later that this is common in the Jesuit drama. 
Perhaps the beginnings of a musical form are to be seen in the 
? choruses. The second and third parts are preceded by short 
prose prologues delivered by the Faraute which contain the 
only, though feeble, attempt at humor in the play. This use 
, of '.injfiffnezzi from act to act to give the argument is found 
. also in Italy. 34 The evident purpose of the speeches of the 
Faraute is to quiet and hold the audience, and to some extent 
they, therefore, belong to the form under consideration. 

> The first of these prologues contains an interesting use of 
the word passo. The Faraute says, “La segunda parte se sigue. 
4 . . . Es en si paso muy dulce y sabroso y gracioso.” Since 

that part to which he refers is the play proper, and in nowise 
anything that can be construed as a separate scene, it is clear 
that the author does not use the word in the specialized sense 
of passing-scene, but rather in that of passage , part , the ordinary 
. r and generalized acceptation to which Timoneda later gave its 
.special significance. 

The Comedia Radiana of Agustrn Ortiz 33 offers two examples. 

> They extend from lines 800 to 879, the closing scene of jornada 
III, and lines 1071 to 1118, the final scene of the succeeding 
jornada. The first is a dialogue between the shepherds Girado 
and Pinto. They are of the type traditional from the earliest 
eclogues of Encina, always sleepy, always gluttonous, and given 
. to gaming and fighting. The scene closes with a bit of horse¬ 
play in which Girado indulges at the expense of Pinto, and pre- 


Crawford, Spanish. 


« Cafietc, intro, to Tragedia llamada Josefina, pp. XIII and XIV. 

Drama before Lope de. Vega, p. 61. 

u D'Ancona, 11 leatro mantovano ... in Giornale Storico, V I, p. 4. 

» published by R. E. House in Modern Philology, Vol. VII. Professor House concludes 
tliat t lie play must liave been written between 1533 and 1535. Idem, p. 509. 





THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


55 


pares the next at the close of jornada IV where Pinto, with the 
aid of Juanillo, evens up matters with Girado in the coarsest 
manner. A similar attempt to relate scenes that are wholly 
apart from the main intrigue has already been seen in Torres 
Naharro. Neither of the scenes of the Comedia Radiana offers 
any advance in content over the earliest traces of the form; 
rather they serve to show how thoroughly the Propaladia was 
misunderstood by its followers and imitators. 

In the Farsa (or Tragedia) de Lucrecia , 36 there are certain 
scenes between hobo and mistress not essentially connected 
with the plot. Such are lines 155 to 174 and 312 to 360. They 
are interlarded only for humorous effect. The first is exceed¬ 
ingly coarse; the second has to do with the old theme of the 
gluttony of the hobo. Neither offers much of real interest. 

The Auto de Clarindo was published originally by Antonio 
Diez 37 from "the works of the Captive.” Its date has been 
placed about 1535. 38 There are three passing-scenes. The 
first of these comes just before the last scene of the first jornada. 
It opens with a tirade of Antonica against her mistress, and 
closes with a passage between the two servants. The social 
satire, and discussion of the servant problem—no special privilege 
of the twentieth century—are poorly done, and show no advance 
upon Jayme de Giiete or Torres Naharro. The second passing- 
scene comes a little after the middle of the second jornada. 
It is very short, only a few lines, consisting of a very coarse 
play between the servants. It recalls the Italian lazzi. t The 
third of these scenes closes the second jornada. The author 
has thought to relate it to the plot in that the fathers of the 
two girls who have been shut up in a convent order Pandulfo, 
the bobo , to visit and take them some food. This the simpleton 
is crafty enough to appropriate for his own nourishment, solilo¬ 
quizing as he eats, and closing with a song in which he says 
that since those for whom the food was intended have delayed 
so long, "perdido lo tienen.” 


,6 Tragedia de la Castidad de Lucrecia agora nueuamente compuesla en metro por Juan Pash*. 
Pub. by Bonilla y San Martin in the Rev. Ilisp,. XXVII, pp. 437-454. The date of the Lucrecia 
must be fairly early to judge from the fact that the same author wrote an auto, published 
in Sevilla in 1528. Cf. idem, p. 394. 

• ,7 Pub. by Bonilla y San Martin, Obras dramatical del siglo XVI, primcra serie. 

3 * Barrera, Catdlogo, p. 128. 



56 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


-if7*? e , secon ^ jornada of the Comedia Tidea of Francisco de 
las Natas contains a comic-relief scene unmistakably influenced 
by Encina. It extends from lines 806 to 1045, and bears no 
real relation to the play. 39 

Menalcas enters dancing and leaping. His first appeal is 
to the audience: 

Hora andar, 
quierome enuenturar 
(h)a hablar estos senores, 
mas no se por do empe^ar, 
que parescen rugidores. 

Such an appeal is common in the prologue of the time, and also, 
recalls somewhat the opening, or loa t scene of the Egloga ett 
request& de unos amoves of Encina where Mingo is so perturbed 
in' this Cpise at having to face his patrons, that he says to his 
Companion: 

• 3 ,'k Yo te juro a San Crimente 

!»><-> que no s6 qu£ me hacer. 

But in the Comedia Tidea does the statement mean that the 
audience had become restless and inattentive, or that the writer 
was in fear of a wavering of interest with its natural accom¬ 
paniment of noise and disturbance? If so, an entremes at this 
point would seem all the more justifiable and to be expected. 

Damon, who follows Menalcas, tells him of his adventures 
in/the city, and of meeting “a thousand students” who, 

Elios juntos 

comiengan habrar de puntos, 
cercaronme en derredor; 
yo miralles sin barruntos 
y dezilles: si, senor. 

Sin me cato, 
dame uno del gapato, 
otro pungar la trasera; 
pelaronme un gran rato 
_ todos juntos la mollera. 

»* Romera-Navarro, Observaciones sobre la Comtdia Tidea in Modern Philol., XIX, pp. 187— 
1‘>8. Ho docs not think this scene a fiasso because of a possible, though slight, relationship 
to the play. 




THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


57 

This is, of course, the situation of the Auto del Repeldn, the 
clash of town and gown, and in the manner of its presentation 
very close to Encina. 

Badajoz, like Lucas Fernandez, often mingles the humorous 
and the grotesque with the religious element, using them to 
explain and develop his doctrinal points. Nevertheless, they 
are not always interwoven as is the case with his predecessor, 
and some of his scenes belong to the cntremes. Only in occasional 
cases, however, do they show the completeness of form foiirid 
in some of those in the Farsa Salamantina. If Badajoz in reality 
considerably antedates Palau, this is not surprising. It i$ all 
the less so when his traditional literary affiliations are con¬ 
sidered. In much he is very far away from the school of Rueda 
in whom centers and culminates the early entremSs. 

The best-developed scene of the kind that he has is in .the 
Farsa Teologal. A negress bearing a tankard enters singing a 
villancico on the birth of Christ. It is the common trick of the 
time, and almost an idiosyncrasy with Badajoz, to attempt 
to relate these really detached scenes to the plot. After some 
dialogue, a shepherd seizes the tankard and makes with it a 
jack-o’-lantern with which he frightens a boasting soldier into 
a swoon. When the latter recovers consciousness, he calls for 
a priest, and then says as an aside that he will mend his ways 
and meanwhile feign toothache “por quitar inconvenientes.” 
This statement about the toothache serves as preparation for 
the second entremSs , pages 112 to 115, in which the priest enters 
with a dentist. The scene between the dentist and his patient, 
the once boastful soldier, who is frightened half to death, is 
excellent from the standpoint of humor. The dentist, after 
ordering a glass of wine for his own, not his patient’s stimula¬ 
tion, pulls one wrong tooth—be it remembered that there is 
really no “right” one for the soldier is only feigning—then 
another, and is prevented from further depredations only by 
the intervention of the priest. 40 

'• The dentist is common in comedy. In the scenari of the commrdia dell'arte, published 
by Haminio Seala in 1611, there is one called II Cavadenli. Its humor is more boisterous 
and rather less persuasive than Badajoz’s. On the whole, the similarity remains only in the 
subject, and that is too common to permit any question of influence. Cf. Scherillo, La Commrdiit 
•Ml'arte in Italia, intro., p. X. 




58 THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 

^Tjhe former of these two scenes is the best of Badajoz’s con¬ 
tribution to the form, and one of the best before Rueda. It is 
one of the comparatively few early passing-scenes that offers 
a definitely, dramatically humorous situation. The great 
majority depend more upon horse-play and coarseness, some¬ 
times of the lowest sort, than upon a situation that offers a 
chance for real humor. 

In the Farsa del Colmcnero , there is a scene whose whole 
purpose is to allow a certain lapse of time before the return of 
Tamar to the stage. It begins with a soliloquy by a shepherd. 
Opilio overhears his last words, and thinks that he is talking 
ill of women. A quarrel ensues, almost childish in its inaneness. 
A knife-sticking contest follows, and when Tamar at last re¬ 
appears she thinks they are fighting, and tries to quiet them. 
This technical use of the entremes to allow a lapse of time required 
in the play has already been discussed. It is one of the most 
common causes for the introduction of these passages. 

The theft of the thirty ducats in the Farsa Militar can be 
considered an entremes in spite of certain connection it may 
have through the part the money plays in the development 
of the main intrigue, and through certain of the characters. 
The friar tells a lame man, a one-armed man, and a blind man 
to take up the ducats from beneath the stone where they are 
supposed to be hidden—Mundo has really stolen them again 
and divide them. The friar then departs. Of course, they do 
’not r find them. The blind man thinks that the others have 
stolen his share, and attacks them bitterly. The diablo ma¬ 
liciously hits him on the head. The blind man blames his lame 
comrade, and they come to blows. The friar re-enters and 
intervenes. When the lame man again protests vehemently 
that the ducats were not there, all turn their wrath upon the 
friar whom they accuse of having deceived them. It will be 
seen that the whole action turns upon a series of misunder¬ 
standings, a situation common enough in the early entremes. 
The devil as a personage in the early passo is probably unique 
here. He never really gained a foothold in the entremes , though 
common enough in other Spanish dramatic literature. 

Many of Badajoz’s humorous scenes have just enough rela- 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


59 


tion to the plays to make it incorrect to class them as entr emeses, 
and yet are so loosely fastened as to rattle on their hinges! 
On the other hand, there are true interlude scenes in which 
minor characters comment and moralize on the action like a 
chorus. But these, although passing-scenes, have nothing to 
do with the entremSs as a form. 

In the Farsa de Isaac , the scene in which the shepherd fights 
with Rebecca over the goat she wants to take from his flock 
to prepare for Jacob has no organic connection with the plot. 
Moreover, the same shepherd’s soliloquy after Rebecca and 
her son have departed, in which he says some extremely in¬ 
jurious things concerning her conduct and about mothers in 
general, serves only to permit the lapse of time necessary until 
the food shall have been made ready for presentation to Isaac. 

It is very common for Badajoz, after using his play for serious 
and doctrinal purposes, to introduce at or near the close a 
humorous scene that has no connection with the action. In 
that case, he commonly gives a sort of coda to his play proper 
by a reversion to the moral tone at the end of the comic scene, 
usually in the last speech. Such a condition occurs irt the 
Farsa del Molinero where he has a blind beggar, his boy; and 
a friar, the last the butt of some strong sarcasm on mendicant 
friars, indulged in by the beggar. The Farsa del rey D&vid 
has a rather long separate comic scene between a shepherd and 
a Portuguese,-one of the earliest examples of the latter type. 
The shepherd enters laden with spoils of the combat between 
the armies of Israel and the Philistines. He tries to make sport 
of the Portuguese, offering to share part of the captured arms 
with him, and fight him. The foreigner at first shows cowardice, 
but the arms once secured, he attacks the shepherd vigorously 
much to the latter’s terror. The last lines of the shepherd’s 
closing speech go back to the argument of the play. This 
entremes is fairly well developed and is interesting. It forms 
a possibly unique example of the ridiculed Portuguese turning 
the tables on his Spanish tormentor. In the Farsa del Ilerrero , 
a shepherd and a smith make sport of a pilgrim; but Badajoz 
is a most unmitigated moralizer, and soon returns to his religious 
theme. 


.' s • '• 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


60 


The Farsa de la Hechicera has much comic material, often 

r. ik rj 

loosely connected, but, as in the case of the plays of Torres 
Naharro already mentioned, the subject is such that it is not 
possible to distinguish true passing-scenes from those that 
regally, belong to the play. 41 

The. so-called Comedia de Sepulveda 42 contains material of 
importance in a study of the cntremes in its early years. Dr. 
Crawford has already called attention to the fact that the 

prologue contains one of the earliest, if not the earliest use 43 
of the word entremSs as the name of a genre. But it contains 
much. more. 

The prologue is in the form of a dialogue between two men 
who a>re discussing the play. To quote: 

Escobar. . . . Pero, por vuestra fe, que me digais, si 

$<e os acuerda, el sujeto desta comedia; y, por ventura, ahorrare 
? .cinco, o seis horas de trabajo por verla. 

• Becerra. No os puede dar gusto el sujeto ansi desnudo de 
aquella gracia con que el proceso d£l suelen ornar los recitantes 

* y otros muchos entremeses que intervienen por ornamento 
fde la comedia, que no tienen cuerpo en el sujeto della; pero 

* prosupuesto esto, si todavia quereis saberlo, os dire lo que 

se me acuerda della. . . . Y hay aqui, como digo, mil 

entremeses graciosos, que van trovados con la obra: que son 

que el viejo Natera, el que crio a Violante, con un instinto 

> 2 <agucjo, <entendio que la Florencia de Figueroa, page de Alarcon, 
era mujer e enamorose della; y Parrado, su criado, lo llevo a 
On charlatan que se hacia magico y hizo mill burlas de su amo; 
V ‘ 

f ; 41 When Cotarelo (Nueva B. de A. E., XVII, Tomo I, Vol. I, intro., p. LXI) says, *'La 
1 Farsa'del matrimonio (II, I) es un entrein£s dilatado: todos los personajes son rldiculos; y 
• ; del inismo carficter participan las farsas del Molinero, de la llcchicera y de la Venlera,” he is 
mislead by his definition or rather lack of definition of the word enlremfs. He is still farther 
astray when of Gil Vicente he says, "La farsa de O Juiz da Beira (1525) contiene algunas sen- 
feilcjas graciosas, como las que despu£s aparecen con frequencia en nuestros entremeses.” 

. If that is sufficient to make a play an entremls, practically the whole collection published by 
Rouanet must be so classed. Moreover, as regards subject matter, the Farsa del Molinero 
’ is- a Corpus Christi play. 

, f 44 Pub. by Cotarelo in Rev. esp. de lit., hist, y arte. It begins with afio I, ntim. JII, and is 
printed in short installments ending afto I, num. XI. 

« The play is probably of the year 1547. Cotarelo in his collection (N. B. de A. E., intro., 
p. XIII) dates it 1580. Internal evidence, including the way in which the word entremis is 
used, seems to refute the later date. 




THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


61 


y tambien al magico que tenia una mujer hermosa. En fin, 
hay mill cosas que no os las sabre decir ni aun son sino para, 
verse en su lugar representadas y, por esto, holgaria que la 
viesedes.” 

If now one turns to the play proper, it will be seen that this 
comedy contains what has already been noted in the Con\ed,iq 
Calamita of Torres Naharro, that is to say, a more or less qom- 
plete subordinate, humorous intrigue included in, but almost 
wholly separate from the main action. 44 This subordinate series 
of scenes the author calls entremeses , and rightly so for they 
have all the characteristics of the rising genre. The important 
thing is that by 1547 these detached scenes were actually and 
definitely called by the name of the naissant form. It has hitherto 
been a well-known fact that Timoneda, in publishing the works 
of Rueda, so named the detached comedy scenes of the plays. 
He even gave a table of them. But here, twenty years before 
the publication of Rueda’s work, is an author doing much; the 
same thing. It is another proof of the fact that the form yras 
really existent and to some extent understood before the middle 
of the century. 43 , 

The exact length of these scenes as compared to that of the 
whole play cannot easily be determined because of the broken 
way in which it was published, but they may roughly be esti¬ 
mated as a third of the whole. They belong entirely to the 
first three acts. The fourth deals with the main intrigue only. 

These “entremeses” are in prose. That is to say, the play 
as a whole is prose. They are, of course, Italian in tenor since 
the play is from an Italian source, II Viluppo , and the author 

• i' 

** This play within a play is found elsewhere than in Spain. Cf. Hammes. Das £uischensPiel 

. . in op. cit., p. 76, and pp. 181-82. In Italy in 1515. an Italian play interlarded between 
the acts of Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus has the necromancer (and an anvil chorus!). D’Ancona. 
Origini, II, p. 119. In the German Zieischen spiel and the Italian intermezzo, it is not uncommon 
for the subordinate action to parody the main intrigue. 

«s If additional justification to looking upon these detached scenes as the foundations of 
the entremfs were needed in addition to that given in the present chapter, it would be found 
in Rojas, Viaje enlretenido, loa de la comedia: 

y entre los pasos dc veras, 
mezclados otros de risa, 
que porque iban entre medias 
de la farsa, los llamaron 
entremeses de comedias. 



THE EARLY ENT REM£S IN SPAIN: 


62 

h^s not replaced the comic material with his own as Rueda so 
often did. The eroticism is less rough and crude than that which 
is innately Spanish, but more pronounced and subtle. The 
servant, and indeed most of the characters, have a finesse in 
tfie delineation that bespeaks their Italian origin. The humor 
is not so spontaneously boisterous as in plays from true Spanish 
sQilfc^s. Like the Italian, it is somewhat more serious. In the 
main traits, the w T riter has followed his Italian original, but he 
hais not been a servile copyist, and there is sufficient of the 
Spanish feeling to make these scenes important from the stand¬ 
point of influence on the entremes. They would permit an 
interesting and instructive comparison with similar passing- 
scenes from the work of Bartolom6 Palau. But that belongs 
rather to a comparison of national characteristics as expressed 
in literature. 

In this comedy of Sepulveda, some of the scenes he calls 
eritr emeses have a certain connection with the main plot, at 
tinrles even a necessary connection. To class them as he does, 
he seems to feel it sufficient that the whole background of the 
scene be separate from the main intrigue. A single point of 
contact is not enough to forbid such a classification. For instance, 
the fact that Natera* tells Parrado, his servant, that Violante 
is not his daughter is important. Yet the scene as a whole is 
listed as an entremes. It goes to show that the form was not 
y£t‘ completely fixed nor fully understood despite the steps 
that had been taken in that direction. When Sepulveda said 
that an entremes was a scene that did not belong to the body 
of the play proper, he took a long stride in advance, but not a 
final step. 

When the author indicated that in this play the entremeses 
“van trovados con la obra,” he seems to point out, at least 
by implication, that such passages were not always written 
with the work; that they were already at times composed sepa¬ 
rately, or perhaps transferred from one play into another. This 
appears a fair interpretation of his words, and if it is, it proves 
that already as early as 1547 what has hitherto been clear in 
literature only from the time of the publication of Rueda was 
even then taking place: before the middle of the century at 


THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


63 


least it was to some extent the custom to use these scenes inter¬ 
changeably . 

The Farsa Salamantina of Bartolome Palau 46 is another ve,ry 
important example among the earlier plays for a study pf the 
development of the entremSs. Professor House has called atten¬ 
tion to a number of the comic-relief scenes of which this play 
contains more than almost any of its predecessors. He inclines 
to think that they have considerable relationship to the passos 
of Rueda. 47 

The first introduces a Biscayan, Juancho. In a scarcely 
intelligible jargon, he tells a student and Soriano that, having 
come from his country to Castile, and finding himself without 
money, he has exchanged his arbalest for a guitar. He wants 
to communicate with his family, but cannot do so. The student 
offers to write his letter for him, and by so doing manages to 
get a little money from him. It is probably a true picture of 
one of the resources of indigent students of the time. 

The immediately succeeding passage also forms an entremes. 
Anton, who is a typical bobo, comes in. He is on an errand 
for his mother, and to remember his commission he repeats, in 
monotonous refrain: 

\ ;'i . v ; 

Sangre para las morzillas 
y tripas para el quajar. 

The student and Soriano ask him whether the pudding his 
mother makes is good, and whether she will sell them some. 
To both questions he replies in the affirmative, but meanwhile 
he has forgotten his refrain. They tell him what it is that he 
was saying, and while he goes on his way, they proceed to the 
home of Mencia, Anton’s mother. While she is getting ready 
what they have desired to buy of her, they steal a piece of bacon, 
but Mencia detects them in the act and raises an outcry. 
Anton returns to force the student to leave bonnet and cape 
in payment for the theft. 


44 The earliest known edition is dated 1552. Whether this is the edilio princeps is not cer¬ 
tain. Cf. Morel-Fatio, Bulletin Hispanique, II, 239. 

47 R. E. House, Sources of Barlolomi Palau’s Farsa Salamantina, in Romanic Review. IV, 
311-322. 



64 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


As will be seen, this makes, on the whole, an excellent en¬ 
trants, comparable with, if not actually excelling, some of those 
of the Deleitoso and the Rcgistro de Representantes of Lope de 
J^ueda. 

The opening scenes of jornadas two and three are entirely 
independent of the main action of the play, and form comic 
interludes. They belong together. The second is simply a 
continuation of the action of its predecessor. Both are based 
upon Beltran’s passion for Teresa. These scenes form to some 
extent a burlesque on the courtly idea of love. This is especially 
true of Beltran’s soliloquy, lines 1302 to 1368. Both passages 
are coarse and vulgar to an extreme. They form an appeal 
to'the baser instincts of the Salamancan students before whom 
the play was intended to be given. 48 

In jornada three, the closing scenes 49 offer another example. 
The bachiller Tripero comes to procure the services of Anton. 
Lfe arouses Mencia who at first denounces him as a disturber 
for coming at such an unseemly hour, and then, learning who 
it"fcTliat calls, receives him graciously as an old acquaintance. 
Mericia recalls the Celestina, and to some extent, Eritea in 
Eficin’a’s Placida y Vitoriano. She promises Tripero that he 
shall have the assistance of her son, but wants to know what 
he desires of him, to which Tripero replies: 


in *v 

No falta 

ado hay fatiga harta 


que han venido por mi en posta. 

ra .-'; •. 

Voy, comadre, a sancta Maria 

*rf 

a conjurar la langosta. 

Anton enters: 

7! ;y, 

Boto a san, 

ax u 1 * 

que parezco sacristan, 


y aun casi (casi) clerizon. 


• Supposed to assist Tripero with the conjuration, he puts the 
conjuror’s book into the caldron, and the rest of the scene is 

V R. E. ‘House. Romanic Rev., IV. 314. has called attention to the striking resemblance 
between these scenes and certain passages in the Tesorina. 

; •• Lines 1384-1789. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


65 


filled with his stupidity and nonsense. Nevertheless, the whole 
does not make a bad entrernes. 

In the fourth jornada, 50 there is a short scene of the type. 
Anton is selling sausages. An alguacil , under pretext of doing 
his duty in examining the wares, frightens him by threatening 
arrest and imprisonment, and takes possession for himself of 
the whole contents of the basket. 

Allied to this scene, much as the scenes in jornadas two and 
three were connected, is the closing passage of the play which 
forms another entr ernes , and another case in which one occurs 
at the end of a play. Mencia wants to send Anton on an errand 
with a basket of sausages, but he is eating and refuses to be 
disturbed. Finally, however, after a good deal of coaxing and 
wrangling, he consents, takes the basket, and learns the message 
he is to repeat on delivering it. But the moment his mother’s 
back is turned, he commences to sample the contents, saying 
that, if called to account, he will say that a dog ate it. This 
trick of the bobo in appropriating to himself food destined to 
other purposes has already been noted. The alguacil enters, 
pretends that Mencia’s sausages are dirty, and over the united 
protests of Mencia and Anton, makes off with his booty. .Mother 
and son, fearing still further pursuit from the law, hide,* 

The last two entremeses show a certain attempt at satire 
over the injustices of public officials. Social satire is to play 
a considerable part in the entr ernes as it develops. It is a form 
that in every way lends itself to such subjects. 

Of these passing-scenes in the Farsa Salamantina , several 
are exceedingly good examples of the newly developing form, 
and might well have been written separately as entremeses. The 
change from the crude scenes of an author groping for something 
without a clear idea of the end to be attained, a condition so 
painful in the plays of Encina and Jayme de Gliete, is striking. 
It will be but another step to the fixed genre. 

In the Obra de El pecador 51 of Bartolome Aparicio, whose 
date Cotarelo conjectured to be about 1530, 53 but which, both 


j* Lines 1840-1894. 

*» Tub. in Gallardo, Ensayo, 1, col. 221-244. 

»’ Cotarelo, Estudios dr historic! litrraria, I, 187, n. 5. 



66 


THE EARLY ENTREMFS IN SPAIN: 


*\v r ~ > 

from structural evidence, and what is known of the date of 
another play by the same author, 53 probably belongs to the 
middle of the century, if not even later, there is a scene that 
belongs to the entrants. The passage in question follows that 
of The birth of the Christ Child. 54 Its only possible relation 
to the play is to have the shepherds on the stage for the Annuncia¬ 
tion, and for the purpose a scene of this extent is out of all 
proportion to the length of the play. 

Mateo enters with his flock, prepares his meal, but lies down 
to sleep before touching it. Pedruelo comes in, spies the food, 
and eats it while Mateo sleeps. The latter awakens, accuses 
Pedruelo, who denies the theft, and they come to blows. Cle¬ 
mente comes upon the scene to act as peacemaker. Such is the 
action.. The horse-play is less rough than is usual in such scenes, 
possibly due to clerical affiliations on the part of the author. 

There are two interesting lines when Pedruelo says: 


.;>* vj: Antes no es, con perdon, 

? hurtar cosas de comer, 


ih answer to Mateo’s statement that he did wrong in appro¬ 
priating the food. This sentence seems to sum up the peasant 
feeling and morality in such cases, at least according to the 
interpretation given them by the writers of the first half of the 
sixteenth century. Cases of such theft have been cited in the 
£gloga ynterlocutoria and the Farsa Salamantina and elsewhere. 

The first jornada of the Comedia Florisea of Francisco de 
Avendano 55 has a break for a song at line 1033 after Salauer 
has said: 



»7 ‘ r.:' 


pues estamos 

tan amigos cuemo hermanos, 
comencemos de holgar; 
yo vos dir6 vn buen cantar; 
asgamos las manos. 


** This play is called the Misterio de la birnaventurada Santa Cecelia, and dates from 1572. 
Cf. Mild, Obras completas, VI, 228 and 360. Creizenach, Ceschichte, III, 147-48, n. repeats 
what Mild has said. Barrera, Cat&logo, 513, mentions an edition of El Pecador of 1611. This 
cannot, however, have been the first. The characteristics and structure of the play, as said 
above, seem to place it in the period 1550-1570. 

»« The entremfs is published in Gallardo, I, col. 233-236. 

«There are editions of 1551 and 1553. Published by Bonilla in Rev. Hisp., Vol. 27. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 67 

The song that follows is humorous in character, and seems to 
be only for relief. Attention has been called to a similar break 
for the same purpose in the works of Lucas Fernandez and 
Encina, and occurs later in many of the compositions published 
by Rouanet in the collection generally known by his name. Thus 
two tendencies, the true entremSs , and the musical break 
that leads in Italy to the musical intermezzo and the melodramma 
—run for a time side by side in Spain. 

In the second jornada of the same play, 56 there is a short 
scene foreign to the action, though the speeches that precede 
and follow relate the characters to the plot. This passage, 
like so many in the early plays, is coarse to the point of lewd¬ 
ness. It consists mainly of the dishonest propositions of the 
shepherd to the maiden Blancaflor. It recalls somewhat cer¬ 
tain of the passing-scenes from the Farsa Salamantina. Doubt¬ 
less the humor was intended to lie particularly in the fact of 
such a situation between two persons of so widely divergent 
social positions. It closes with a dance accompanied by a 
humorous song. 

The first scene of jornada three 57 offers the best example of 
entremts material in the play. It serves no more purpose than 
to introduce the allegorical character Fortuna who, however, 
plays an important role in this act. Briefly, the action is as 
follows: Fortuna enters dressed in a manner befitting the alle¬ 
gorical character of the personage. Servants and gentlemen 
alike are terrified at the apparition. At the instance of Floriseo, 
the shepherds Salauer and Pedruelo conjure him in what is 
evidently intended to be humorous terms, whereupon he reveals 
his identity. The element of producing fright for comic effect 
in a passing-scene has already been found in the Farsa Teologal 
of Sanchez de Badajoz. 

In the works of Sebastian de Horozco, there is perhaps the 
earliest extant example of an entremes entirely separate and 
apart from a play. This is the entremes written “a ruego de 
una monja parienta suya.” 58 For a long time it was thought 
that this was the first time that the word occurred as the name 


Lines 1234-1269. 
*' Lines 1434-1594. 




68 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


of the literary form, and a number of critics have repeated that 
statement. As has been seen, this now appears to be inaccurate. 

But up to this date, all passing-scenes have been strictly 
incidental to and included in larger dramatic compositions. 
This cntremes of Horozco stands as completely separated from 
"a larger dramatic form as do those of Rueda in the two collec¬ 
tions published by Timoneda. The one possible exception, 
if it is to be considered at all a real example of the form, is the 
Auto del Repeldn. 

The cntremes in question is, as regards form and content, 
of mo very special interest. Its attitude is distinctly one of 
levity, if not of actual mockery of religious things, an attitude 
on the part of the author that reappears in the hobo scene of the 
Hisioria de Ruth. 

The structure of the scene is loose, and there is no distinct 
dramatic purpose. By turns, the love-passion of the peasant, 
the beggar at his trade, a new departure in the entremes , and 
one that was to be a fruitful source of material, a dishonest 
friar, and a bun-seller are depicted with more or less skill. 

In the Representacion de la historia evangelica del capitulo 
nono de Sanct Juan , Horozco has another entremes distinctly 
‘so named: “Mientras vuelve el ciego, pasa un entremes entre 
un procurador y un litigante.” A lawyer laments his lack of 
clients. He describes how he plucks those who fall into his 
hands, and then abandons them. All is grist that comes to his 
mill. A client appears, and the lawyer proceeds to apply his 
system. His greeting is cordial, and he makes use of the Bible 
tV> serve his ends: 

Ora sus, nombre de Dios, 
quidquid venerit ad nos 

V ... f 

non enciemus toras. 


The client gives and gives until at last he exclaims: 

Veis ay otro ducado, 
aunque del comer lo quito. 

Whereupon the lawyer, having bled his client to the last ducat, 
abandons him. 


** This, of course, docs not mean to say that it is any the less a subordinate form. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


69 


This entremes is interesting for its material. The lawyer’s 
cold-blooded greed, his carelessness of the ultimate interests of 
his clients, his effusiveness that borders almost on servility 
while he is wringing money from his victim, his desire to create 
litigation for his own profit: all these are well depicted f6r the 
time at which the passage was written. In form, it is rather 
highly developed. This is not strange in view of the advance 
that had been going on for half a century by the time that 
Horozco wrote. 

In addition to the scenes mentioned, Horozco has a very 
short one in his Historia de Ruth between a majordomo and a 
laborer, Reventado, that has some of the characteristics of the 
entrembs. 

When Horozco called the play written “a ruego de una monja 
parienta suya an entremes , what did he understand by the 
term? Cotarelo seems to think that he did not really intend 
to differentiate it from his other plays. 59 In his famous -Memorial 0 
of the festivities held in Toledo in 1555, he says, “E^te dia, 
entre los otros entremeses estropajosos, salio vn sac^muelas 
con todo su herramental, y vna mujer a quien sacaba la muela, 
y sentavala en vna silla y descarnavasela con un cuerno, y 
despues sacava unas tenazas de herrador, 61 y ella dando gritos 
sacavale un miembro de hombre. ... A este tenor salieron 
vn tripero y vna tripera. . . . Ella llevava dos ollas delante 

en vn seron, y con su garavato sacava de la una tripas y de la 
otra muchas naturas de hombre.” 63 And again, “Delante yva 
un tamborilero disfrazado en su asno, tanendo muy bipn, y 
luego venian muchos hombres y mugeres muy aldeano? :y de 
camino, con sus sudarios al pescuego y con muchachos(delante 
de si, y algunas de las mugeres con criaturas como que -yvan 
paridas, como acontege quando van a las bodas de unas aldeas 


” “ A una ,e da eI nom bre. entonces poco comim, de entremts; a las otras las nombra repre- 
sentaciones.” Cotarelo. El Licenciado Sebaslidn de Horozco, p. 34. 

Memoria de las fiestas y alegrias que en Toledo se hizieron por esla razon (i. e., the conversion 
of England) ... in Rev. Hisp., Vol. 31. 1914. 

‘■This recalls strongly except for the phallic part II C'avadenti, the scenario published by 
Flaminio Scala. See note 40 to the present chapter. 

61 Pub. ctt., p. 402. These recall the phallic shows and pageants apparently common to all 
peoples at some time in their history. 



70 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


a otras, y muchos de ellos traian la redoma para la novia en 
vnas manganas puestas en vnos palos, y las manganas llenas 
de reales hincados en ellas hechos de lata, y otro llevava vn 
plat° para en que ofrecer, con dinero de la ofrenda, y jugavan 
de palo quando alguno le metia la mano. Detras venian Ids 
padrinos y los novios, besandose de rato en rato, y el cura del 
lugar con vn gesto y vn bonete harto de notar y de reir, y el 
alguacil y el alcalde del lugar, todos tan al propio y al natural 
en todo, que regozijd mucho este entremes, avnque en asnos, 
porque ymitavan mucho a lo verdadero.” 6 * * These, then, are 
to Horozco entremeses. Juan de Angulo, in his Flor de las 
solennes alegrias 6 < describes the latter of those cited from 
Horozco, but he terms it a mdscara , and not an entremSs , which 
latter word he does not use at all. Horozco also speaks of 
mdscaras in his Memoria , but to him they mean types, while 
comic interludes in the pageants are entremeses , as has been 
seen. It is reasonable, therefore, to suppose that, understand¬ 
ing^ the word in this sense, when he used it for his playlet he 
thought of a somewhat similar show interlarded in the general 
festivities of the convent, and actually had in mind a differentia¬ 
tion from that of representacion. That he went still further 
aiid knew of the entremes as a play within another has already 
been seen. 

When Juan de Angulo calls mdscaras what Horozco names 
entremeses , it simply means that this use of the word was not 
altogether generalized. It is, however, found in the sense that 
Horozco used it in other writers of nearly the same date. Villa- 
Idbds defines as follows 65 : “entremeses en nuestra lengua quiere 
decir nuevos visajes y nuevas invenciones.” This might in¬ 
clude both the type and the show. If so, Horozco went a step 
farther in restricting its meaning. The idea of “invention” 
m connection with the word has already been noted as far back 
as the Cronica de D. Alvaro de Luna . 66 


*■' Pub. cil., pp. 400-1. 


*< Juan de Angulo. Flor de las solennes alegrias y fiestas que se hizieron en la imperial ciudad 
de Toledo por la conuersion del reyno de Ingalaterra. . . . Acabose en el aHo de MDLV. 

Pub. in Rev. Hisp.. Vol. 31. 1914. C/.. p. 468. 

* J Tibro inlitulado Los Problemas de Villalobos, Tractado I, metro II, in B. de A. E., Vol 36 
p. 406. 

“ See chapter I, note 43. 




THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


71 


It will not do to pass from Horozco’s contribution to the 
form without quoting a few lines valuable for the light they 
throw on the popular types of the time, a field intimately allied 
to the entremes. In the same Memorial * * * * * 7 he says: “En este 
tiempo salieron maxcaras de moros, judios, doctores, medicos, 
degeplinantes, salvajes, locos, triperos, melcocheros. bunoleros, 
cornudos, romeros, diablos, correos, porteros de cofradias, 
cagadores, hermitafios, negros, negras, portugueses, amazonas, 
ninfas, cardenales, monjas, biudas, Celestina con su cuchillada 
y su canastico de olores, lengeras bizcaynas, reyes,* pastores 
y aun frayles salieron al principio.” That is to say, he men¬ 
tions most of the types adapted to the entremSs whether by 
Rueda or his predecessors. While there is certainly reciprocal 
action both from and to the drama, these types seem, as the 
relation shows, to have been to no small extent popular in their 
inception. In comedy, as opposed to tragedy, influence usually 
flows largely along the underground river of human contact 
and the fundamental similarities of human nature. i 

About the time of Horozco, that is to say toward the middle 
of the century, the use of the word entremes for a little secondary 
playlet became common. It is found in that sense in the Historia 
de la gloriosa Santa Orosia 68 and in the Crotalon . 69 By a decree 
of the synod of Guadix and Baena for the year 1554, entremeses 
in churches were forbidden without previous notice given in 
order to allow the authorities the opportunity to pass on their 
fitness. 70 They were in all probability rudimentary examples 
of the form, unless perchance they belong to the class of those 
written by Gregorio Silvestre to be mentioned in the next: para¬ 
graph. It seems likely, however, that they may have been 
true comic plays, for in 1609 P. Mariana in his De Spectaculis 
mentions entremeses given in convents which he censures in the 
following terms: “los entremeses indecentes y bailes deshonestos 


Pub. cit., pp. 394-95 for the whole passage. 

*• Cf. Bonilla y San Martin, Las Bacantes, p. 134, n. 1. 

** Baist in Grfiber’s Grundriss, Vol. 2. pt. 2, p. 464 and note. Also Bonilla, op. cit., p. 87. 

It is difficult to determine exactly whether it has here its new meaning or belongs still to the 

old tradition discussed in the first chapter of this study. 

7 * SSnchez-Arjona, El teatro en Sevilla, p. 10. 



72 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


que se mezclaban con las representaciones devotas en las iglesias 
* Mi'y conventos.” 71 

■ There is in the introduction to the works of Gregorio Silvestre 
& mention of entremeses. The passage is as follows: 44 . 

. - f n ?^scribi6 muchas obras espiritualts , asi por ser 61 aficionado a 
f religion, como por darle ocasion la iglesia mayor, donde era 
organista; oblig^ndose por solo su gusto cada ano a hacer nueve 
entremeses y muchas estancias y chanzonetas: en el cual oficio 
sucedid al famoso Maestro Pedro Mota complutense, y al 
Licenciado Jim6nez, que hizo el Hospital de Amor que imprimid 
por suyo Luis Hurtado de Toledo;que en esto tambien tuvieron 
cargo de escribir estos entremeses para las fiestas mas celebres 
de la iglesia mayor.” 7 ’ Silvestre lived from 1520 to 1570. 73 
His entremeses , then, would have been written somewhere near 
the middle of the century. Since they are spoken of as 44 obras 
espirituales,” they cannot have been comic interludes. Set 
figures like the church entremeses of the fifteenth century do not 
■ v- seem likely. More probably, especially since Silvestre was a 
■r ^ fmusician, they may have been musical or festal representations, 
-v. It'is not impossible that they had some similarity to the Italian 
ricercari. In any case, they belong to another tradition than 
the one here under consideration. The word applied to them 
serves only to show how long and persistently it held to its varied 
meanings. 74 

The anonymous Farsa llamada Rosicla contains two passing- 
v 1 ; scenes. The first 75 opens with Caniuano endeavoring to arouse 
f i,vfris/worthless son. The latter is the conventional bobo. The 
fw blaster enters. A discussion between him and the bobo's father, 
v Qaniu’ano, who is a gardener, over crop and weather conditions 
1 * can scarcely be called humorous. The comic element is supplied 

. f ? 

T * Sdnchez-Arjona, op. cit., p. 12. 

’* Gallardo, Ensayo, IV, col. 619-22. Article 3944. 

» There are editions of his works of 1592 and 1599 (Gallardo 3945 and 3944). The vita 
appeared in both. 

74 In Valencia in 1531 there was an entremes de peu, religious in nature. In 1551, the same 
representation was called a misteris de peu. After 1515, these shows were divorced from the 
church, but the religious and allegorical character continued. They do not to any degree 
belong to the tradition from which the Spanish form developed. See Merimee, L'Art dramatique 
<i Valencia, pp. 20 and 30. 

« Lines 215 to 475. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


73 


by the forgetfulness and gluttony of Benito, the bobo , who re¬ 
calls somewhat the shepherds of Encina, but still more Anton, 
the bobo of the Farsa Salamantina. The second of these scenes 7 * 
has little point, and as in so many of the early attempts, rough¬ 
ness takes the place of humor. Both scenes, however, continue 
the already establishing tradition in the new form. 

Going back a little in time, it may be noted that improvisa¬ 
tion appears in the theater in the Farsa of Luis Mil&n where 
the actors are given only the indication “dicen que . . 

and fill in according to their fancy. Since 1538, the possible 
year of the Farsa , 77 is also the one in which an Italian company, 
so far as is known, first visited Spain, 78 one is tempted to ask 
whether Italian improvisation may not have had an influence 
on Luis Mil&n. It appears later in the entremes , but never really 
acclimated itself on Spanish soil. 

Already, then, many attempts at the new form, a few con¬ 
scious as in the case of Horozco, many blindly groping, had 
been made. An abler* hand than any of these was shortly to 
fix and establish the new genre , and that was to be the work of 
Rueda, the first real entremesista. 

- T 

*• Lines 623 to 738. 

77 Merim6e, L’Art dramalique d Valencia, p. 89. 

71 Rennert, Spanish Stage, p. 21. Stiefel, Zeilschrift fur romanische Philologie. XV. 320. 


3 

• v| 

.nort 

:*■» 5 n » 


i 



74 


TIIE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


■■ V 

*v.-snv7e & HI 

C%vm .?i; . 

Timoneda, Rueda, Alonso de la Vega 

While it is only as late as 1554 that Rueda is mentioned 
in extant documents 1 he is then spoken of as already a man of 
the theatre, representing “un auto de la Sagrada Escritura, 
muy sentido, con muy regocijados y graciosos entremeses.” 
It js^not possible to do more than conjecture how early his 
career began, but it is more than likely that chronologically his 
earliest influence, and his writings as a whole, antedate those 
which are usually attributed to his posthumous editor, Juan 
de Timoneda. Since, however, the hand of the latter passed 
upon, and in some sense interpreted, Rueda’s work, it is in 
-, v ■ T*R OI?e( I a,s contribution that must be sought certain back¬ 
grounds for an understanding of the contemporary concept 
ipf the cntremes during the period which immediately follows 
the middle of the century. 

It was with the publications of Timoneda that in a real sense 
began that period of prose in the theatre, and especially in the 
entremeSy that was to flicker out only with the contribution of 
Cervantes and a few of his anonymous contemporaries against 
whom rose the supreme influence of Benavente in the entremes , 
and Lope de Vega in the comedy in favor of verse. Certainly 
there had been dramatized prose works numerous enough in 
the first half of the century, but with an occasional sporadic 
exception like the Comedia de Sepulveda , they had been imita¬ 
tions of the Celestina , and, like it, not intended for representa¬ 
tion. Timoneda recognized both the value of that great work 
for “el estilo comico para leer puesto en prosa,” and the fact 
that its imitations had not been intended for the stage, but, 
he continues, “considerando yo esto quise hazer comedias en 
prosa, de tal manera que fuessen breues y representables.” 1 


• Cotarelo, Estudios de hisloria lileraria, I. 207; and Rennert, Spanish Stage, p. 587. 

• Juan de Timoneda, Obras completas, I, p. 9. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


75 


Here then, in a contemporary is a clear realization of the part 
the Celestina played in producing that prose period of which 
mention has been made. Among the causes for the change from 
verse, Men6ndez y Pelayo has seen also the triumph of Italian 
comedy in Spain. 3 There is, perhaps, especially for the enlremSsi 
also another reason more indigenous than either of these which 
will be discussed in its more appropriate place under the work 
of Rueda. 

Timoneda’s contribution to the entremSs is that of editor, 
not that of an author. Of the non-religious works published 
under his name, he claims the original composition of the 
Comedia Cornelia alone. 

Timoneda, both as collector and editor, uses the word entremes 
but three times: once, as synonymous with passo , in the head¬ 
ing to the collection known as the Turiana; a second time as 
title to the first composition in that collection; the third, in his 
sonnet introductory to El Deleitoso where passo and entremSs 
are again synonymous. His favorite word is passo. During the 
earlier decades of the century, this word appears in two main 
senses. It is applied to a short religious play, possibly some¬ 
what like an eclogue or an auto sacramental. For instance, 
to a collection printed in 1520 there is the title Tres pasos de 
la Pasion y una Egloga de la Resurreccidn , 4 and the colophon 
reads Aqui se acaban Ires muy deuotos pasos de la passidn y vna 
Egloga dela ResurecionA In the second place, it means simply 
passage, as when Carvajal speaks of a “passo de la sagrada 
hystoria” 5 ; or Bartolom6 Palau “ay en ella muy grac,iosos y 
notables passos.” 6 But in no case before Timoneda does it 
appear as strictly synonymous with entremes. Where to his 
time a name had been given to the new form, it was always 
entremes and not passo. 1 As has been said, Timoneda used the 
two words to apply equally to the new genre. In the Turiana , 
there is no material difference between the first playlet which 


J Esludio preliminor to the Propalodia in Libros de Antaflo, X, p. CL. On the influence of 
the Celestina, see also Wolf, Studien, pp. 285-86. 

* Cotarelo, El primer auto sacramental in Rev. de Arch., Vol. 17, p. 253. 

J Josefina. And see Creizenach, Ceschichte, III, 145 and note. 

« Farsa llamada custodia del hombre. Cf. Gallardo, Ensayo, IV. col. 1401-02. No. 4483. 

7 See preceding chapter. 




76 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


he'terms an entremes , and the following three which he calls 
passos } except for the third, perhaps, which is “para la noche 
de ri&uidad,’’ 8 and may hark back to the application of passo 
> t6'religious plays. In addition, Timoneda uses the word in the 
old and common sense of passage when he says of his Amphitrion, 
“cohtiene muy altas sentencias y graciosos passos.” 

It is to be noted, therefore, that in the use of the words to 
name the form, Timoneda’s contribution is exactly the opposite 
of that usually attributed to him. He is far from being the 
first t6 use the name entremes . 9 His use of that, word is, on the 
whole; without particular significance. So far as the form is 
concerned, what he does do is to apply the term passo to what 
was already beginning to be known as the entremes. Whether 
this is his own individual contribution, or due to the influence 
of Rueda, who may have used it for his examples of the form, 
it is not possible to say, since the latter’s work has come down 
only through the hands of Timoneda, who quite conceivably 
wrote the title-pages and headings. It is certain, however, that 
except for Timoneda (and Rueda?) the word passo was but 
•little‘Used to designate the form until comparatively late times, 10 
<when those writing of the sixteenth century drama, influenced 
by Timoneda’s synonyms, use the two indiscriminately. From 
the strictly historical standpoint, passo for entremes is little 
more than a temporary phenomenon due to the influence of a 
single writer." 


• Timoneda. Obras completas, I. p. 177. 

’♦V'itzmaurice-Kelly (Litterature espagnole, p. 181) lists Andres del Prado as one of those 
Who uied’The term entremes prior to Timoneda. 

,»• It dops, however, occasionally occur in the period that follows, as, for example, in a letter 
of Antonio Perez cited by Cotarelo (Obras de LoPe de Rueda, I, intro., p. XXVI n. See also 
.7?. de' Ak 72., T, 548) where passo may be synonymous with entremes, and not simply in the 
ijens£ of passage. The uncertainty in interpretation lies in that it is not known whether 
danassa wrote entremeses, or whether the writer means only to indicate humorous passages 
' from the Wbrks of both men, passages that might or might not be entremeses. 

Even when Rojas in his Viaje says: 

y entre los pasos de veras. 
mezclados otros de risa, 

he uses it in the sense of passage, and not in its technical meaning, for he goes on to explain 
that these other (passages) "de risa” were called entremeses. 

" When Crawford {Rom. Rev., XI, p. 80) says the Comedia de Sepdlveda has “one of the 
earliest recorded uses of the term entremes as synonymous with passo,” if he means that they 
were then synonymous, he anticipates the use of the word passo. As has been shown, the 
use o entremes precedes. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


77 


But the word passo , a passage, and then for a brief time the 
name of the nascent form, does serve to show unmistakably 
whence the genre comes. EntremSs, too, has been seen in the 
same application in the Comedia de Sepulveda. The form was 
at first a passage, disconnected or separable from the play, 
and in this sense it was at first understood. 

The five entremeses of the Turiana, all anonymous, were 
intended “para principio de fargas y comedias.” This was 
certainly not the most ordinary place, as has been seen. It 
serves to add emphasis to the still fluid conditions that sur¬ 
rounded the new genre. It might be natural to think that 
Timoneda thought of them as introitos but for the fact that his 
first collection offers three examples of the latter, all essentially 
different from the passos , though both contain in germ a slight 
dramatic action. The introito, however, contains also the argu¬ 
ment to a play; the entremSs can be attached to any larger 
dramatic form: it is wholly complete and independent in itself, 
though intended as a subordinate form. It is more than prob¬ 
able that Timoneda thought of these short, and in four cases 
out of five comic, playlets as curtain-raisers to the main comedy, 
offering a means of winning the good will of the audience in 
advance. This, of course, is one of the main purposes of the 
form as a whole. Its position with regard to the main.pLay was 
extremely elastic even as late as the time of Calderdp. 

The passos themselves offer certain points of interest. They 
are all in verse. Either the influence of Rueda was not far- 
reaching enough, or what seems more likely, they form an in¬ 
dependent, and sporadic attempt. Two, numbers three and 
five, are intended as Christmas plays, and the latter of these 
is allegorical. While this is not the only case in which allegory 
entered the entremSs , this Passo de la razdn y lafama is in nearly 
everything an exception to the traditions of the form. It is 
serious in tone, and the whole spirit is religious. It might, in 
fact, much more suitably be classed as a true Christmas play. 
It can certainly have had no effect on the entremSs , and if 
Timoneda’s classification is to be at all accepted, it must be 
only upon the ground that this play was intended, like the others 
of the collection, as a curtain-raiser for a larger form. 


78 


TIIE EARLY ENT REM&S IN SPAIN: 


The Passo de dos ciegos y vn mogo does not differ essentially 
^rli from the other three comic passos except for the fact that its 
use as a Christmas play is clear. Martin, the blind man, says: 

Mandadme rezar, pues qu’es 
o'- rmyy noche santa, 

la oracion segun se canta 
del nacimiento de Christo. 12 

The action is briefly this: one blind beggar tells another that 
* f for safety he keeps his money in his cap. The mozo of the former 
steals the cap, and the blind men come to blows when the one 
accuses the other of the theft. 

Certain features of this plot find analogues in the French 
farces Le Gargon et Taveugle (1277); Un Aveugle, son valet et 
une tripibre , ca. 1450; and most of all in VAveugle et son valet 
'Tort, of 1512, by Francois Briand, 13 but these can scarcely be 
regarded as even remote sources for a story that, on the whole, 
belongs rather to folk-lore. 14 In cntrernes literature, a very 
similar motif has been pointed out in the theft of the thirty 
ducdts in the Farsa Militar. 

The first passo in the Turiana is likewise a quarrel between 
Wo beggars, one of whom is blind. 15 A dispute between two 
clerics forms the subject of the second passo. loan, the attendant 
^ of the parish priest, recalls in certain characteristics the braggart 
soldier, treated in burlesque fashion. The plea for silence at the 
close, and the speaker’s statement that “he is leaving the stage 
fiV (yo me voy) because the play is about to begin,” show that this 
■ playlet was intended for use as a prologue. It does not, how- 
e¥ef, contain a summary of the plot. The editor of the Turiana 
? ‘states in his rubric that the passos included in that volume were 
ihtehded to introduce plays, but this one alone contains evidence 
’ bo prove that statement. 

— » 

** Timoneda, Obras completas, I, p. 181. Creizenach, therefore, is wrong when he says, 
‘‘wiewohl sich keine Bezichung auf das Fest darin findet.” Geschichte, III, 179. See also 
tdein ,'^cond edition (ed. Adalbert Hamel), III, 90. 

,\i Jahrbnch fiir romanisrhe und englische Literatur, VI, 163; Le Roux, I, 12 and Mabille, 
I, 80. For the last-mentioned, see Bencke, Das Repertoire, und die Quellen der franzdsischen 
Farce, pp. 18-19. 

V' Totldo. Ltudes sur le theatre comique fran(ois du moyen dge, in Studj di filologia romanza, 
IJC, p. 2,35. To sec how one such story passed from happening to theater, see Beneke, op. 
ctt., p. 88 and also p. 83. 

*s The light between two of the same profession is found in the passing scene of the criers 
in Jean Bodel's Jeu de saint Nicolas. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


79 


Passo four describes a trick played by a soldier on a Moor. 
The situation is after the manner of passo quinto, commonly 
called the Jierra de Jauja , of the Delcitoso of Rueda, but ntuch 
less skilfully handled. In both, thievish-minded personages 
accomplish their purpose by turning the dupe’s mind from; his 
wares. 

In addition to the five separate entremeses of the Turiana, 
the plays published by Timoneda contain many detached 
scenes. A large majority of them are short, and do not show 
the development that might be expected for that date.; Not a 
few are brief boberias of a comic character, much like those 
already noted in Jayme de Giiete, and rather similar to what 
lazzi might have been had they been written out. Others have 
a tenuous connection with the plot, and show the early traces 
of the movement that culminates in the gracioso with his humor¬ 
ous, but integral, part in the play. This latter movement, 
of course, leads away from the entremes. 


A few detached, or practically detached scenes, however, merit 
some attention. The best of the sort in the Paliatm is that 
in which the devil advises Juan to commit suicide. The latter 


finds both cutting his throat and hanging too painful. He 
prefers to “comer la muerte,” and makes an attack on the 
preserves in the cupboard at which he is caught by Belisena, 
the maid. 16 The scene near the close of the play in which the 
Portuguese makes love to Belisena, is hidden by her in a mat, 
and the mat is then beaten by Juan at her orders to the routing 
of the intruder, is also a good passing-scene. 17 It shows con¬ 
siderable analogy to the Entremes de las esteras , often attributed 
to Rueda. In the Aurelia , the second, third, and fourth jornadas 
have a very slight relation to the action in that Aurelia is taking 
charge of the home while Saluzio, her brother, is away; and that 
there are heard from time to time noises of ghosts, as he had 
told her would be the case. But neither of these points is in 
the slightest degree necessary to the action. These three jornadas 
really form a series of passing-scenes to allow a necessary lapse 


•‘Timoneda, Obras completas, I, 292-295. 
*» Idem., pp. 300-303. 



80 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


of time. Some of the scenes they contain are good entremeses. 
In jornada two, the contest between the Portuguese, Biscayan, 
Frenchman, and soldier forms a completely separable passage. 18 
The gardener scene of jornada three 19 recalls somewhat that 
v> mentioned in the Comedia Aquilana. The scenes in which the 
gypsies and bobo take part in jornada four are both separable. 20 
Scenes in which gypsies take part have already been found 
several times in the cntr ernes. The Rosalina has certain entr emeses 
de lacayos in imitation of similar ones in the plays of Torres 
Naharro, but which offer little that is new. There is, however, 
one good passing-scene 21 in which the chief actor is an amorous, 
boastful Portuguese who, according to his servant “with his 
words slew more Moors than were present” in the fight at 
Tunis.* When he protests his love in the warmest terms, ex¬ 
claiming “me quemo en biua llama,” the servant Marisancha 
extinguishes it and him by pouring a pail of water on him, and 
when he weeps over that “dishonor,” excuses herself to her 
mistress by asserting that he has spoken ill of the latter. 

In the Cornelia , the scenes in which Mencia tells Cornalla, 
her husband, that Fulvio is in love with her, has him wear her 
clothe to a tryst she claims to have with Fulvio, and then gets 
Hthe hitter to give him a thrashing, form a well-developed series 
of-passing-scenes with only a shadow of relation to the plot. 
The quality of the humor and general tenor of the story seem 
more Italian than Spanish. 22 Finally, the first scene of the 
Castillo de Emmaus is entirely separate from the play, as is 
indicated by the word “fin” at the close of the passage. It 
.forms a passo to begin a play. 23 

t :j-The chief interest in these scenes as a whole lies in the fact 
that, even to the time at which Timoneda was publishing his 
<i-i'famous collection, the entremes had not yet become a completely 
j; fr^ejand independent form, though long steps had been taken 
toward its detachment from the play. 


*» Idem., pp. 333-338. 

*» Idem., pp. 344-351. 

•• Idem., pp. 354-358 and 358-365. 

»» Idem., pp. 463-467. 

•» For questions concerning the plays of Timoneda, see M6rim£c, L' Art dramatique d Valencia, 
and Crawford, Spanish Drama before Lope de Vega. 

»» M6rim£e, L'Art dramatique d Valencia, p. 198. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


81 


The entremeses of Timoneda’s collections are, except for 
those of the Cornelia , in verse; those of Rueda are prose, and 
it is in his work that must be sought the chief backgrounds 
of that movement to prose already mentioned. Both Italian 
comedy and the Celestina influenced Rueda’s manner of ^com¬ 
position, but these did not constitute the sole, nor necessarily 
the supreme influence. Neither can his use of prose be attributed 
to inability on his part to handle metre, for the contrary is 
proved both by his own extant verse, and by the testimony of 
Cervantes. 24 

It must be remembered that he was a professional actor and 
manager of the earliest known theatrical troupe in Spain; not 
primarily a man of letters. His task it was to meet day by day 
the almost impossibly difficult situations that faced the strolling 
company, situations sometimes laughable, often actually danger¬ 
ous, as Rojas has described them. 25 Rueda’s entremeses show 
many traces of hasty composition. In not a few cases they 
probably were improvised to meet a sudden emergency, and 
committed to paper only after their success had been tested 
before an audience. Timoneda’s revisions make it still more 
difficult to make even a conjecture regarding their original 
form. Cotarelo’s statement that Timoneda’s corrections were 
neither numerous nor important is by no means convincing. 26 

But poetry is not the language of haste, nor of the extempore 
player, and when the life and backgrounds of Rueda are con¬ 
sidered, prose becomes not the unusual, but the thing naturally 
to be expected, a necessary growth for reasons indigenous in 
the situation of the entrernes in Spain. That it continue^ to be 
for a time the distinguishing feature of the form, may be ascribed 
on the one hand to a continuance of the same conditions, and 
on the other to the influence that Rueda himself exerted for 
decades to come. 

In the years 1567 and 1570 respectively, Timoneda published 


•< Cervantes, Comedias y entremeses, I, p. 5, ed. Schevill y Bonilla. 

*» For one such laughable and dangerous situation, see Rojas, Viaje entretenido, I, pp. 122-23, 
ed. Caflete. 

•‘Rueda, Obras, pr61ogo, pp. XXXII-XXXIII. Also idem., I, p. 5 and p. 159. For the 
opposite view to Cotarelo’s, see Stiefel in the Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie, XV, p. 337. 



82 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


the ,separate passos of Lope de Rueda in two collections known 
as 9$ Deleitoso and El Registro de Representantes. The former 
,, jpontains seven plays, all ascribed to Rueda; the latter is made 
. ijp?,of six pasos de Lope de Rueda, y otros diuersos autores,” 
.according to the statement of the title page. There is no reason 
L ' to;doubt the word of the editor that the fourth, fifth, and sixth, 
which, bear the name of Rueda, are his, and that the others are 
from, other hands, although internally there is only the weak¬ 
ness of the latter to differentiate them. On the other hand, 
there is little except for the verse in the one case and prose in 
the other to distinguish the passos of the Turiana from those 
of the Rueda collections. 27 

The plays of the Deleitoso , in contradistinction to the Turiana , 
were intended, according to Timoneda, both for the beginnings 
and “entremedias” of comedies. The rubric to the Registro 
says nothing of their position. Considering the dates of these 
{ publications, this may have some significance. The Turiana 
is of ( 1564. By 1567, Timoneda revises his statement that puts 
passos only in the place of curtain-raisers. By 1570, their use 
probably well enough fixed and understood to need no 
statement at all. This was possibly due in part to the diffusion 
given to the genre by the two preceding books. Moreover, the 
Turiana contains Christmas plays, though comic, and one serious, 
allegorical composition, which both in form and material could 
but poorly fit in during the play proper. The Rueda passos, 
on the other hand, are wholly comic and unattached. Some 
, s ? er f 1 i n t er, ded to begin plays, but the distinction is extremely 
f .slight. In the introductory verse to the Registro , Timoneda 
1 r recognizes a change: 

■ w 0 Aqui van registrados con mi pluma 

los pasos mas modernos y graciosos. 28 

There had, therefore, been within the mind and purpose of 
Timoneda, and probably of his contemporaries, a change in 
regard to the entrernes. The genre was slowly evolving. 

It is worthy of attention that, while in the epistolas that head 


s; Sec Merimee. L'Art dramalique cl Valencia, p. 158. 
*' Rueda, Obras, II, 144. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


83 


the comedias and colloquios Timoneda addresses himself to 
the “prudente y amado lector” or to the “sapientisimo lector,” 
in both the Deleitoso and the Registro he turns to the actors 
themselves: 

Represen tan tes habiles, discretos, 
pues sois en l’arte comico famoso 29 
espejo, ejemplo, aviso provechoso - A 

de sabios, avisados, y discretos, 30 
Con animos sinceros y quietos 
venid alegremente al Deleitoso, ^ 

hallarlo heis repleto y caudaloso 
de pasos y entremeses muy facetos. 31 
And more clearly in the Registro: 

De aqui el representante que presuma 
hazer que sus colloquios sean gustosos, 
puede tomar lo que le conuiniere, 
y el passo que mejor hazer supiere. 32 

The two collections were, therefore, destined directly for the 
actor-manager in need of material to support his plays rather 
than for a reading public. The Tabla of passos had also the 
same purpose. Altogether they form a sort of vademecum for 
the autor as the very name Registro de representantes also indi¬ 
cates. This is significant: it means on the one hand that the 
reading public could have been but little used to the form, 
and most of all it goes to show how far the entremSs was from 
being considered worthy of consideration as a literary genre. 

Two principal personages of the first two passos of the Deleitoso 
have the same names in each. Otherwise, the playlets have 
no internal relation. It is possible that both were originally 
used in the same play. They are the least finished of any of the 
two collections, and show much evidence of hasty composition. 
Especially is this true of the first one. It is scarcely more devel¬ 
oped than one might expect to find an extempore sketch based 


” In the academy edition: Pues sois en larte comico famoso. 

• ,0 In the academy edition, there is a period here. The sense requires the comma. The 
same edition has indiscretos, an evident error. 

J‘ Rueda, Obras, II, 144. 

J J Idem., II, 226. 



84 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


on a given situation and hastily jotted down after the perform¬ 
ance. Paso segundo is a ghost-trick played by master on servant. 
How close these scenes are to the audience, and how dependent 
r,'i ; iOn a full comprehension of the action on the part of the public 
is to be seen in the soliloquy of the master in which he describes 
for the benefit of his auditors what he is about to do, and how 
the trick is to be played. This is a device to make intelligible 
the situation for the sake of the audience that recurs frequently 
in the cntremescs of Rueda. Generally the opening speech also 
is in some sense an explanation or a preparation, though in no 
sense a prologue which is seldom found in the entrernes. In the 
two passos in question, and in the last of the Deleitoso, however, 
this rule of an opening speech for explanation is broken, and 
the dialogue is entered upon directly. 

The third of the Deleitoso is the most Italianate of all those 
of Rueda, and the only one for which some direct Italian source 
might be expected to be found. A student is in love with the 
wife of a simple. The wife makes her husband believe and do 
the most impossible things, he remaining always blind to her 
perfidy. The action of passo four is very slight. A licenciado 
T 'ihvite$ a traveller to take supper with him. But he has no 
money to pay for the meal, and when he tries to escape ful¬ 
fillment of the duty of host he is exposed before his intended 
guest by a friend who had promised to help him out of the 
difficulty. 

Passos five and seven are the best of the Deleitoso. The former 
is the one known as the Tierra de Janja. The action is slight: 
tw6 hungry thieves tell a simple of a certain land whose rivers 
^ are milk and honey, and when he becomes absorbed in the 
' contemplation of food without labor, they make off with the 
v dinner he was carrying to his imprisoned wife. In this simple 
" setting, Rueda has developed an excellent character-study. 
r There are the hungry thieves who spy out their prey; the simple 
who enters thoughtlessly singing, one of the few cases in which 
music appears in the passos of Rueda. Against the darker 
background of the thieves, the character of Mendrugo stands 
out sharply. He is not the conventional, asinine, meaningless 
bobo , the stock comic personage of the early sixteenth century 


THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


85 


plays. ^ Rueda has made him untutored, lazy, eternally hungry, 
easily duped, all well-known characteristics of the type, but 
with it all a real person, and not an impossible idiot. In so 
doing, Rueda made more than a passing contribution. With 
him the entremes begins truly to take its place as more than a 
conventional round of rough language and coarse action. Here 
is true dramatic interpretation of character, and with that ihter- 
pretation the entremes , or any form, begins to assume a literary 
aspect. From its closing sentence, this passo seems to have 
been intended for the commencement of a play. 

Passo seven is usually known as Las Aceitunas. It is the 
finest piece of satire from the pen of Rueda, and one of the very 
best entremeses ever written. Toruvio, who, although called 
in the list of personages a simple viejo, is neither more nor less 
than a peasant of the small-land-holding class, beats violently 
for admission to his house as he returns, storm-driven, from 
labor. His daughter admits him. The wife is away gossiping. 
When she returns, summoned by the daughter, he demands 
his meal, and a scurry ensues to get him supper and comforts 
after his wetting. He tells his wife that he has planted some 
olive-saplings as she desired. They begin to wrangle? 'and 
quarrel over the price at which the olives are to be sold, pulling 
and tearing at the daughter, each demanding that she observe 
that this price or that is the correct and proper one, and that 
she is to accept no other. For the sake of peace, a Neighbor 
offers to buy whatever olives they have to sell, but to his amaze¬ 
ment learns that the quarrel has been over fruit not due for 
many a year. n 

The story of "counting one’s chickens before they are hatched " 
is found in all literatures, but rarely has it been treated with 
more skill than Rueda shows. The characters are intensely 
real and living; the situations are vividly human. There breathes 
in it life in its most every-day and yet most universal mani¬ 
festations. In a word, this is the high point of Rueda, and 
perhaps also of the drama before Lope de Vega from the stand¬ 
point of human interest and character portrayal. In this passo 
also, the last line seems to indicate its purpose as a curtain- 
raiser. 


86 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


Passo sexto is far from the same caliber. A simple , sent by 
his master to pay a debt, is deceived, and the money taken 
from him by a thief. The most noteworthy thing is that the 
i.r' rsimple evens matters up by giving the robber a good thrashing 
"rV y when he reappears. Poetic justice for the bobo is a rarity in the 
^arly entremes; he is generally merely a target. The passage 
t jin which Cebadon, the simple , gives directions how to find a 
?-pertain house 33 is very close in spirit to similar directions of 
Launcelot Gobbo in the Merchant of Venice , 34 and furnishes a 
certain interest as an analogue in comic material. If Launcelot 
and the simple of the entremes are not brothers, they are at 
. , least first cousins. 

Passo cuarto of the Registro , which turns upon the capture 
of a thieving lackey by the officer of justice, is of no special 
interest. In the next, a servant, piqued at the aspersions cast 
rupon his honor, boasts his valor, and derides the other lackey 
in his absence. But when the latter appears, the boaster be- 
qomes an arrant coward, and is easily forced to do the most 
.' humiliating things, even to the point of submitting to a thrash¬ 
ingat-the hands of his own mistress. In the character of 
iiSebastiana, the woman, Rueda’s skill in the interpretation of 
hnrhuman qualities is again shown. She is the true mundana who 
urges her follower into a situation he cannot meet, and then 
delights in his discomfiture. Once more the central feature 
of Rueda’s work, vividness in portrayal, appears. Although 
his character-study lacks the profundity of the master in the 
larger sense, it at least shows a talent of no mean proportions, 
yet the very shortness of these compositions allows for only a 
flash rather than a sustained effort of which, quite likely, Rueda 
would have been incapable in any case. 

> ■ ^ In the last passo of the collection, a master accuses several 
^Servants of the theft of some food, and chastises them for it, 

1 only to discover a moment later that he had himself put it away. 
As a recompense for the penalty suffered, he gives it to them 
to divide, and they retaliate by bombarding him with it. Again 


« Rueda, Obras, II, p. 206. 

54 Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 2. 



TIIE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


87 


Rueda shows his love for poetic justice. The situation is not 
without cleverness, and the dialogue, as is usual with Rueda, 
is lively, but there is not any greater depth. 

The first three passos of the Registro , as has been said, are 
not ascribed to Rueda, and one may be glad that they do not 
have to be written after his name. Cotarelo, probably becapse 
of the dialogue, has thought that the first may possibly be his. 35 
This is more than doubtful. The energy, the life of Rueda are 
lacking. The humor is coarse and crude, and while satire of 
the medical profession is attempted, character-study is almost 
nil. The second of these three is interesting for the material it 
offers for a study of thieves’ slang. As an entremis, it is poor. 
The action is weak. Narration takes the place of movement 
to a considerable extent. All unity of purpose is lost, a thing 
that never happens with Rueda. The third passo has flashes 
of real humor, but again the characters offer nothing of interest, 
and that unity about a given point on which these little playlets 
depend so much for their appeal is none too well maintained. 

In addition to the ten compositions already discussed, Rueda’s 
editor lists fourteen “passages that can be taken from the 
present comedies and colloquies, and put in other works,’’ 36 
that is to say, so many entremeses. 37 Two of these include in 
their entirety the second and seventh scenes of the Comedia 
Eufemia. The first has to do with the cowardice of two lackeys. 
The second deals with the love affairs of servants. It has a 
semblance of relationship to the play, but this is not integral, 
and it has therefore been classed by Timoneda as a detach¬ 
able scene. The same play also contains two passing-scenes 
of less importance, and not listed in the table of detachable 
scenes. Both are in scene one. The first is a master and servant 
passage. 38 The second stages a typical quarrel, and the harrying 
of the simple. 39 

The single passo in the Comedia Armelina occurs in the second 


« Rueda, Obras, II, 227 n. 

Rueda, Obras. II, 137-38. 

»» Ford, Main Currents of Spanish Literature, p. 115, speaks of the colloquios as “ longish 
pasos." As a whole they certainly do not belong to the form, though,as will be seen, they 
contain many scenes that do. 

»• Rueda, Obras, II, 9-15. 

J » Rueda, Obras, II, 16-23. 



88 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


scene. It contains the familiar features of the servant play. 
The fifth scene of Los Enganados is similarly classified as de¬ 
tachable, although its last lines bear a slight relation to the 
plot. Here the master merely serves as a foil for the wit of the 
lackey. It is very common for Rueda to make this use of the 
personage playing opposite the chief comic character. The 
humor of the scene, however, is forced, and shows the author 
very far from his best. Two other short scenes have all the 
characteristics of early entremeses . The first is a conventional 
master and servant scene 40 ; the second is between a simple 
and an innkeeper. 41 Neither offers anything worthy of note. 

While the table points out three entremeses in the Medora , 
this is but part of its contribution to the form as the introito 42 
indicates: “sobre esto ver&n, senores, graciosfsimas maranas, 
y de que suerte descubre la gitana cuyo hijo es Medoro, dejando 
aparte los amores de Acario con Estela y los de Barbarina con 
Casahdro, y las astucias de Gargullo, lacayo, y las necedades 
de Ortega, simple. Porque iodas estas cosas son parte de la 
comedia para hacella mds graciosa y servir a vaesas mercedes 
como todos deseamos .” This statement recalls strongly the one 
cited from the prologue to the Comedia de Sepulveda , though the 
wording is different. Rueda says these scenes are “part of the 
comedy” for the specific purpose of amusement. It is another 
way of saying “que no tienen cuerpo en el sujeto d61.” 

As in Sepulveda’s comedy, there is here a series of scenes 
that form a sub-plot, and that Rueda recognizes as passing- 
scenes. Stiefel has pointed out that scene five is entirely original 
, >jvith Rueda, and might be used as a passoA 3 In fact, it is a good 
one, and it is hard to see why Timoneda did not list it in his 
table. His reason for omitting the greater part of the other 
unlisted scenes is, on the other hand, fairly obvious. They 
j are usually either short or weak. This statement, then, makes 
it once more clear that the background of the entremes is the 
disconnected scene or the comic sub-plot. With this recognition 


*• Rueda, Obras, II. 165-169. 

«' Rueda, Obras. IF, 216-219. 

” Idem., I, 242. 

*'Stiefel, Lope dr Rueda ... in Zritsrkrift fiir romanische Philcl., XV, 531. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


89 


on the part of Rueda culminates the long list of evidence that 
began with Encina. The separate scene continues for a time, 
but its main work has been accomplished with the growth from 
it of the new form called the entremes. 

The whole Medora , as has been pointed out, is more nearly 
a series of entremeses than a play in any proper sense. 44 Taken 
individually, they are of no special interest, and add little to the 
contribution of the author. In the plays that bear his name, 
the passing-scenes at least are usually the work of Rueda him¬ 
self, but in the Medora most of them, and the gypsy Scene 
which is the best of all, come from the Italian original. 45 

The two passos in the Colloquio de Camila form parts of one 
whole. This relationship of such scenes has already been noted 
many times. Their content is that of the domestic quarrel, 
already found so well done in Las Aceitunas. The treatment 
of the domestic relations of the lower classes is where Rueda’s 
contribution rises to its highest point. He is a keen and Critical 
observer as well as a humorist, not dependent like his prede¬ 
cessors upon horse-play and coarseness to support his observa¬ 
tion, at least when he is at his best, and he naturally turns to 
that situation in life that at all times has offered the humorist 
the most fertile source of material. In the passos , Rueda’s 
insight is most at home among the lowly he knew so well from 
experience. He wisely stays there. Their home life, with its 
banal situations, it crudities, and its commonplaces, all comic 
to the humorist, is full of the material most useful for popular 
comedy, and this Rueda has seized upon and put to good account. 

The passage between husband and wife that occurs near the 
close of the play is a passing-scene to allow a necessary lapse 
of time, but so constructed as not to be usable in another play. 

Like the Medora , the Colloquio de Tymbria is more important 
for its entremeses than as a play. The table points out five. 
In addition to these, the opening passages between Tymbria, 
Sulco, and Leno, 46 after the first soliloquy by the last-mentioned, 
really form an entremes de bobo except for a few lines near the 


«« Stiefel, Pub. cil., XV. 336. 

« Stiefel, Pub. cit., XV, 328. See also p. 184. 
<* Rueda, Obras, II, 78-87. 



90 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


middle that relate to the play. The passos named in the table 
are all of the hobo type except the second. The humor is by 
no means always spontaneous. In the first, a cake is mentioned 
that later has a relation, somewhat unimportant, to the play 
proper. The second introduces a negress, and is broken near 
a the middle by a cancidn. It is perhaps the cleanest-cut of all. 
The last three have all a slight thread of connection, and are 
interrupted only briefly by the play itself. They deal with the 
simple who forgets his name, and who pretends to be a “rat6n 
de las Indias.” 

At the close of the second jornada of the Comedia llamada 
discordia y question de amor , the scene between the hobo and 
amor” is like an entremes, and is introduced only for comic 
effect. 


In this connection, it may be noted that at least as early 
as 1554 the entremes was definitely distinguished as a form. 
' Attention was called in the first paragraph of the present chapter 
to a record concerning Rueda in which he was spoken of as 
playing an auto “con muy regocijados y graciosos entremeses .” 
: ' r ® es *de being the first mention of Rueda, this is the first known 
-record of the word entremes , applied undoubtedly to the form, 
appearing in what is really a non-literary document. This 
fact has its importance. It shows that by 1554 the entremes 
was neither so new nor so unusual as not to be understood. 
Just what the entremeses of which the document speaks may 
have been, whether passing-scenes of the sort examined in 
imChapter II and under the works of Rueda, or separate playlets, 
^cannot be determined, but the distinction is not material. The 
important point is that the entremes, under the leadership of 
- Rueda, was known and played as such at least about the middle 
jfJ ,pf the century. That, however, they were not known to the 
reading public from the literary standpoint even as late as 1567 
has been seen in the course of this chapter. 

The Farsa del Sordo, published not later than 1568 , 48 has 
often been attributed to Rueda, and was published with his 
works in both the Fuensanta and Academy editions. Fitz- 


«’Rueda. Obras, II. 340-343. 

4 * Idem., I. intro., p. XCVIII n. Gallardo, Ilnsayo . No. 1189. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


91 


maurice-Kelly is entirely right in saying that it "is almost 
certainly by another hand." 49 There is not a trace of Rueda 
on the play. On the other hand, the influence of Encina is un¬ 
mistakable. It is, with the exception of a few passages, little 
more than a series of passing-scenes. Following the shepherd’s 
introito, comes a monologue of coarse character by a maid¬ 
servant. Bartolom6, the inocente, enters, and a dialogue which 
recalls somewhat the rcquesta de atnores theme from the servants’ 
viewpoint, follows, closing with a song and dance. It is a wholly 
detached passage, entremes in character. With the entrance 
of a deaf man, comes another such passage, though in its course 
mention is made of what may possibly be called the plot of 
the play. A gallant and a page question him. He answers 
with nonsense. Both, angered at his stupidity, attack him, 
and he thereupon acknowledges having been able to hear all 
that they said. As a whole, it makes a fair passing-scene. The 
one which follows is also like an entremes , though with little 
point. It is made up mainly of the foolishness of the hobo and 
the deaf man. 

The play scarcely merits its title. The deaf man is entirely 
a passing character. It is the only case in which a play can be 
said to have derived its name from a character confined to the 
passing-scenes. In general, there is scarcely a plot. The action 
passes from one thing to another, leaving the scenes strung 
one after the other with little or no relationship. The closing 
dialogue on the Nacimiento shows close similarity to the last 
speeches of Encina’s Egloga representada en la mesma noche de 
Navidad. 

To return to Rueda. All possible and impossible influences 
have been seen on his work from Theocritus to Ruzzante and 
his followers and the Commedia delTartc.* 0 Certainly he knew 
the Celestina and Italian comedy, and it is more than probable 
that he was acquainted with Plautus. But when all influences 

History of Spanish Literalurr, pp. 167-68. 

*• Htzmauriee-Kelly. Life of Cervantes, p. 171 and n. Creizenach, Geschichte, III, 172-73 
and 171. Stiefcl in Zcitschrift fiir romanische Philologie, XV. 320 and n. 2. Schaeffer. Geschichte 
des. span. Nationahlramas, I, 38. Rodriguez Marin, Burla burlando. p. 338. Moratln. Origenes 
( B. de A. E., II. p. 161). Flamini. II Cinquecento, pp, 317-18. And almost anyone else who 
' as ever seen the name of Rueda! 



92 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


are accounted for, it still remains true that above them all, 
in his work for the entremes , he is himself and a Spaniard. 
U WWerever his material came from, he made it his own, and he 
-n made' it Spanish. His types, and in this he was less original 
’than some think, 51 are better worked out than those of his 
H‘!predec£ssors. Above all, they are thoroughly native both in 
f ; their* faults and their virtues. To Rueda’s mind, comedy was 
undoubtedly the most important thing in the drama, and it 
seems to have been with him almost a point of patriotic pride 
Tto make it the truly individual and national part of his plays. 
All the more because of this, there can scarcely be a question 
of'direct borrowings for his comedy. 

*> Lope de Rueda then, is not essentially a creator of types; 

the use of dialect in Spanish comedy long antedates him; as 
' has been seen, he is far from being the ‘/inventor” of the passo. s2 
What he did as his essential contribution to the entremes was to 
fbc and delimit the form as a form. Until his time, the attempts, 
though fairly numerous, had been halting, timid, uncertain 
of the end to be attained. He first understood clearly the possi¬ 
bilities and implications of the situation, and he took the already 
invented” form, and gave it life and breath, defining in his 
work its scope and aim as none before him had been able to do. 
That he was able to control and direct the entremts was due 

• to those qualities that won for his works a hearing: to the 
vividness and force of his dialogue, as has been pointed out, 53 
to the popular form of his language, and perhaps in no small 

• measure to his adoption of prose. Add to this his real ability 
‘Wgive color to the life of the people he knew, the life of the very 

heart of the Spanish character, rising in his delineations at 
times; if not often, to a point just short of art, and it is not to 

’ *• Prof. House is certainly in error when he says, "He introduced a large number of new 
cpmic types drawn largely from the city classes. Page, simple, midico, ladr6n, estudiantr, 
alguazil, hidalgo, fregona, mundana, these are some of the characters that jostle each other in 
his pasos." Rom. Rev., IV, 319. It has been seen that almost all of these are to be found, 
not alone in the theater, but in the passing scene as well, from the time of Torres Naharro. 

s* As assert Sanivisenti, Manuale di Lett, spagnuola, p. 72; Ford, Main Currents, p. 115; 
Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Lope de Vega and the Spanish Drama, pp. 10-11, and many others. 

•j Menendez y Pelayo, Tres comedias de Alonso de la Vega in Dresden Gesellschaft fUr ro- 
tr.anische Literatur, Vol. 6, intro., p. XIV. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


’ 93 


be wondered at that he became the master of Cervantes and 
of the later writers of the entremes. 

The works of Alonso de la Vega were, like those of Rueda, 
published posthumously by Timoneda in 1566. They contain 
a number of passing-scenes, though in no case is the word en¬ 
tremes, or passo , used in connection with them. Several are 
short passages like so many written lazzi. It is possible, since 
Alonso de la Vega came under Italian influence, that he drew 
at least the inspiration for them from Italian comedy. Examples 
of such scenes may be found in the Tholomea between the. mer¬ 
chant and the simple,™ and between the maid and the viejo ss ; 
and in the Duquesa de la Rosa in a scene by no mean^ in the 
best of taste, but that smacks of Italian humor, in which Thome 
enters and offers to sell the duchess the bundle of wood with 
which she is to be burnt. 56 ■ I 

The second scene of the Tholomea has a fairly well-developed 
entremes. A maid-servant makes sport of a necromancer who 
attempts to make love to her. 57 The closing passage of scene 
five forms another. 58 Robledillo, a cowardly ruffian and a fol¬ 
lower of Tholomeo, has gotten into Argentina’s house, and is 
frightened to death to find himself there. It is night. The 
maid comes out to hang some clothes, takes Robledillo for a 
tree trunk, and attaches the clothes line to him. The viejo, 
a sort of inferior majordomo, enters, discovers the intruder, 
and would attack him but for the interference of the maid. 
The scene, although ridiculous, does not make a bad entremes. 
In scene seven, 59 there is a short passage in which a simple 
complains of being scratched by the cat, and when the maid 
tries to find the marks, it is to discover that he has not been 
touched. The structure of the dialogue rather allies this 
scene to the lazzi passages cited above. Scene two of the 
Seraphina has a rather good entremes. The simple is to be 
hanged for allowing his master’s breeches to be destroyed. 


54 Tres comedias dt Alonso de la Vega in pub. cit., Vol. 6. p. 7 and pp. 8-9. 
« Idem., pp. 13-14. 

** Idem., pp. 104-05. 

*» Idem., pp. 10-12. 

J* Idem., pp. 22-25. 

*» Idem., pp. 29-31. 



THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


94 


He refuses to say the credo, replying with “martingala” instead, 
since “he is not to be hanged for the credo.” He is released, 
, and thereupon wants to have everyone else hanged. 60 Scene 
,i;t,hree contains a short passage of the servant type. 61 The 
vQomedia de la Duquesa de la Rosa has the best-rounded entremSs 
01 scenes of any of the plays of Alonso de ia Vega. The first in¬ 
troduces the already familiar Portuguese and his rnozo who 
deceives .nd makes his master ridiculous. The Portuguese, 
Hke .his predecessors, is over-fond of music, vain and pompous, 
amorous. The whole passage makes a good entremes . 6a The 
second such passage has many points in common with the 
tradition as far back as the Auto del Repeldn. Bravonel—the 
name may be significant—tells of meeting seven ruffians, routing 
them, and slaying one. Loaysa, a lackey, enters to belie his 
tale. He has been attacked and beaten by some pages. Like 
Robledillo in the Tholomea , Bravonel, his cowardice exposed, 
offers his services to the lackey “if it is necessary to kill any¬ 
one in his service.” 63 It makes an entremes comparable to those 
of. a certain class in Rueda’s work. A third good scene of the 
,^°rt, i s that in which the duke’s majordomo gives some pre¬ 
serves and a message to the simple for the duke. The message 
is never delivered and has no place in the play. The major- 
ffomo tells the simple that the conserves are bewitched. A 
page suggests to the bobo that they bewitch themselves by 
e <*tipg the contents of the jar. The majordomo returns to give 
the simpleton a thrashing for the theft. 64 A scene which only 
by implication has any relation to the drama is that in which 
tfefJ ^JbcLchiller Valentin and his mozo discuss in macaronic Latin 
.without sense or reason, the former’s love for the duchess, 
tp .tyhom he finally makes an explanation in the most ridiculous 
terms.- It is nothing but a passing-scene, but a little apart from 
the already establishing form. 65 

Moratfn in his Origcnes published a really beautiful little 


»• Tres comedias de Alonso de la Vega in pub. cit., Vol. 6, pp. 46-48. 
“ Idem., pp. 50-51. 

"Idem., pp. 77-79. 

Idem., pp. 83-86. 

*< Idem., pp. 88-91. 

Idem., pp. 92-95. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 95 

playlet called a “paso,” and entitled Amor vengado . 66 He 
ascribes it to Alonso de la Vega. It is a pastoral scene in the 
Italian manner, and except for the sub-title of passo has nothing 
whatever to do with the entremes tradition. Nothing further 
definite is known concerning it; but if it really belongs to Alonso 
de la Vega, and if it originally bore the title passo , the fact would 
go to show that the word was of uncertain application at the 
time, and when used about the time of Timoneda, could mean 
a playlet or passage of any nature whatever: that passo , unlike 
entremts , was not the name of a comic or even a passing form, 
subordinate in another composition. It has been seen that 
passo for entremts was in the sixteenth century only a sporadic 
use. 

The contribution, then, of Alonso de la Vega consists of four 
or five really developed entremeses and a few minor passages 
like lazzi, enough to give him a place with Timoneda and Rueda 
as one of those on whom rests the moulding of the form in prose 
just after the middle of the sixteenth century. 


“ R eP r *nted in Ochoa. Tesoro, I, 200-201, along with the Origenes. 




06 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


, r - IV 

jr,; ;• The Closing Decades of the Century 

. It is proved by the title-page and the first three entremeses 

of the Registro dc Representantes that at least as early as 1570 
! others than Rueda, and his single predecessor Horozco, had 
bfe&un to write entremeses as a separate form apart from any 
particular play. There is reason, however, to believe that these 
,.p- three examples do not much antedate in composition the time 
j • erf their publication, for in the poem that precedes them Timoneda 
says, “Here are set down with my pen the most pleasing and 
modern pasos .” Rueda’s contributions to this collection were, 
of course, written before 1565, the date of his death, and it 
would seem that Timoneda must have had in view the three 
j ! by various authors. They have to some extent the air of imita¬ 
tions, none too well done, of Rueda. This might be expected 
to be the case, if they were written between the date of publica¬ 
tion of the Deleitoso and 1570. If such is the fact, it goes to 
show that the impulse to the new form given by the printing 
of Rueda’s writings was not long allowed to lie dormant. 

While, however, as will be seen, the production of entremeses 
never flagged, comparatively few can be definitely and certainly 
assigned to the period between 1568 or 1570 and the close of 
the century among those which are extant. The reason for 
this cannot be stated with complete certainty. It must not be 
forgotten, however, that the entremes was still a fugitive piece 
for an occasion rather than a literary form. When written at 
all, they were probably hastily jotted down for use of the troupe, 
and would naturally disappear in the many vicissitudes to which 
the belongings of a company of the time were subject. And 
unfortunately, after Timoneda, no autor seems to have had the 
good fortune to find a publisher for his stray pieces as did Rueda. 
Without Timoneda, the remains of the form, apart from the 
passing-scene, would be scanty indeed to about the year 1570. 
Two of Horozco’s would exist and nothing more. 

In a collection of autos written for representation by the 
students of the Jesuit College at Salamanca, the entremes occurs 


THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


97 


rather frequently. The Parabola cocnae 1 has one such scene, 
entitled in the codex “La Gallofa.” 2 The greater part of ? it is 
in prose. The characters are four beggars: a lame man, a cripple, 
a blind man, and a deaf one. They discuss their trade not a 
little after the manner of such personages noted already in the 
entrcmeses of the Turiana and elsewhere. The scene closes with 
an “oracibn argentina” by the blind man which he tells his 
companions he says only for those who give him silver. This 
passage is in verse. On the whole, the play introduces;no;new 
elements, but it does serve to show that certain traditions and 
manners of interpretation were beginning to attach themselves 
definitely to the new form. 3 • •? 

The Exatnen Sacrum in the same codex has two entremeses, 
each called an “actio intercalaris.” 4 The first is short, and 
lacking in humor. It is interesting, however, for certain side¬ 
lights it throws on the drama of the time. An alcalde and three 
simples , or peasants, discuss what is to be done to celebrate 
Corpus. One would have neither “comida ni auto,” but only 
a sword-dance and religious observance of the day. Another 
would omit the meal, but not the auto lest “Pero Escribano and 
the smith, who write well, 5 and take upon themselves each year 
the trouble of pleasing the public” should be offended, and 
after all “it is the use and custom.” On the commonness of 
the custom there is, of course, much proof in extant documents. 
From the text, however, it may safely be inferred that the 
autos were, at least in some cases, the product of local “celeb¬ 
rities,” often perhaps as in this case chosen from among the 
artisans of the village. The theatrical company was evidently 
not yet in complete control. The situation on this point, at 
feast in the early drama in Spain, was apparently not far different 
Irom that known to have existed in England and more or less 
in the rest of Europe. The latter part of this entremSs is of 
little moment. It ends with the words, “Children, no more 


1 R. de A. E., Vol. 58. The enlremes is pp. 126-127. 

* Idem., Vol. 58, p. 126, col. 2 note. 

’ Pcdroso, from internal evidence, thinks that this play must have been written before 1568. 
Cf. R. de A. E„ Vol. 58. p. 127 n. 1. 

‘ R■ de A. E., Vol. 58. The scenes in question are pp. 138 and 141. 

» "Qtie troran bien." 




98 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


of this, for that is not in the service of God.” They show clearly 
the clerical tendencies of the writer. 

T The second actio intercalaris is to some extent a continuation 
of the one just discussed. Henero, who is evidently the smith 
mentioned above, is angry because there is to be no auto for 
“Never,” says he, “did I write (he hecho) better couplets than 
this time.” This entremes is made up of a play (or rather re¬ 
hearsal) within a play . 6 Henero and Escribano (see above) 
are training their rustic players for the Corpus auto. It is, in 
some measure, Hamlet and the players before Shakespeare 
had conceived his great work. 

In the same codex, the Triotifo del Sabio , and the dialogue, 
De mctodo studendi , both are accompanied by entremeses . 7 The 
dialogue, De praestantissima scientiarum elligendi by Fathers 
Andres Rodriguez and Juan de Pineda has also an entremes 
at the end of the play . 8 The Cenonia has no entremes , but 
does have choruses which may have fulfilled the same function . 9 

A passing-scene is found in the Auto del sacrificio de Abraham 10 
where a passage of wit between maid and bobo as they are spread¬ 
ing the table for the feast has no relation to the action . 11 As 
the century moves toward a close, the passing-scene will still 
be found as, for example, in the second act of Ricardo de 
Turia’s La burladora burlada where there are certain technical 
reasons for its presence, and it can be traced in the seventeenth 
century at least as far as Tirso. But in general the heyday 
of the separate scene passed shortly after the middle of the 

* Cf. Schwab^ Das Schauspiel im Schauspiel * *ur Zeit Shakesperes, in Wiener Beilrdge e. eng- 
Philol., Vol. 5. 

? Barrera, Cat&logo, pp. 588 and 330. 

* Idem., pp. 330 and 304. 

* Idem., p. 535. The passing-scene seems to have played a more than ordinarily important 
; part in the Jesuit drama, not always, however, as a comic-relief scene. At least, this is true 

in Germany at the beginning of the seventeenth century where they either follow the Italian 
form of the musical interlude (in Spain the coro) from which develops in Italy the melodramma, 
or they are mute scenes accompanied by music, used to represent in brief a summary of the 
action of the preceding act, and drive home its principal lesson. Exactly the same thing occurs 
at the close of the third act of the Parabola coenae ( B. de A. E., Vol. 58, p. 125). Cf. Carl 
Kaulfusz-Diesch, Unlersuchungen iiber das Drama der Jesuiten im 17 Jahrhundert in Arthiv 
f. das Sludium der neueren Sprachen u. Lileraluren, Vol. 131 (N. S. 31), pp. 1-17. For inter- 
ludium, esp. pp. 4-5. 

Rouanet, Coleccidn, I, pp. 8-10. B. de A. E., Vol. 58. The passage in question is scene 
five in the latter publication. 

M The same kind of passing-scene is found also in the German. Cf. Hammes, Das Zui- 
schenspirl im deutschen Drama in Literarhislorische Forschungen, XLV, p. 33. 



TIIE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


99 


sixteenth century with the definitive formation of the genre 
which was its logical outgrowth. On the one hand a better and 
more defined dramatic technique 13 ; on the other the creation 
of a form to fulfill its function combine to the almost complete 
extinction of the passing-scene. 

The plays of the so-called “Rouanet Collection” 13 offer con¬ 
siderable indications for the form. There is, first of all, a single 
separate entremis: De las ester as. In prose and in the manner 
of Rueda to whom it has been attributed, it has been called the 
“first entremes of the Spanish theatre,” and the date of compo¬ 
sition placed between 1530 and 1550. 14 The latter date seems 
early, but is just barely possible; the former, from what is 
known of the development of the form in general, appears out 
of the question. The play opens with two maids beating some 
mats and discussing as they work the lot of servants, and their 
own amours. The bobo and the maids’ lovers, one of whom is a 
bachiller who talks macaronic Latin, enter. When the master 
comes on the scene, the girls hide the men in the mats, but they 
are discovered, and the entremSs ends in the accustomed rough- 
and-tumble manner. The close is weak, but on the; whole, 
the playlet is no poorer than some of those known to be Rueda’s. 
If it is indeed his, one is tempted to see a personal allusion in 
the words of Melchora: “There is no greater labor in the world 
than to serve for a lifetime, and then have (your master) 
give you five thousand maravedis, an old frying-pan with more 
holes in it than a grater, a lamp without a hook, four broken 
dishes, and to cap it all a tailor for a husband.” The reader 
thinks instinctively of the suit Rueda fought so stubbornly in 
behalf of his wife for her services to the Duke of Medinaceli. 15 
As for the last clause, one might be tempted to imagine that 
Rueda had heard something of the same charge against himself, 
substituting gold-beater for tailor! 


” In this movement Ricardo de Turia himself. Juan de la Cueva, Lope de Vega. Cervantes* * 
Crist6bal SuSrez de Figueroa, such writings as the Tablas poiticas of the Licenciado Framisco 
Cascales all tend toward a forcing of the adoption of the unities, either in their entirety or 
in a modified form. 

*3 Coleccidn de autos, farsas y coloquios del siglo XVI, four vol., Barcelona y Madrid. 1901. 

14 Revista espahola de lit., hist, y arte, afio I. numero I, de Enero de 1901, pp. 21-22. 

•3 Narciso Alonso A. Cortes, Un pleito de Lope de Rueda, Madrid y Valladolid. 1903. 





100 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


Some six times in the collection there is the direction, “aqui 
hr& aver lln entremes,” or words of a similar nature. Exactly 
the same kind of an indication is found in German plays, and 
in one case a certain definite intermedium is named to be in¬ 
serted. 16 It seems undoubted that the Spanish author, or 
authors, knew of the form as a form, and intended to have the 
players insert at the points indicated any entremes from their 
repertoire. It was to fill a need of just this sort in the life of a 
company that Timoneda published those collections, especially 
of Rueda, which, as has been seen, were intended as a players’ 
vademecum. The directions in the Rouanet collection prove 
that the use of the form was becoming generalized. This call 
for an entremes comes at various places from near the beginning 
to near the end of the autos. It is evident that the mere matter 
of Ideation was not the momentous thing. What the author 
clieisireel above all was the “crutch,” as the editor of Benavente 
has put it, on which to support his play. Occasionally music 
takes the place of an entremes as in the Farsa sacramental de la 
Juente de la gracia where there is the direction, directly similar 
ni intention to the one cited, “Tane, y baila el Bovo.” 17 The 
end in, view is the same. 

Other technical considerations are fulfilled at times by passing- 
^ scenes. In the Auto del sueno de Nabucdonosor, 1 * the chamberlain 
and Arioc play at dice “while the king reposes.” This is to 
allow the time necessary for his dream. The Farsa del robo de 
Digna also has a scene to allow a lapse of time. In this case, 
( however, while it is comic, it has been related to the play. It is 
noteworthy, nevertheless, that this scene is in prose, intercalated 
i.n a play in quintillas , a perhaps unique case in the history of 
the Spanish drama, as Rouanet suggests. 19 The Desposorios de 
Joseph has a passage by the hobo that gives the actress time for a 
change of location. 20 Near the middle of many other plays in 
the collection, there is a comic scene, more or less related to the 


■•Harnmes. Das Zu'ischenspiel ... in op. cil., XLV, p. 138 and pp. 27-28. For the 
scene which ‘‘pent se placer dans differentes comedies,” see Driescn, Der Ursprunt’ drr Harlekin. 
p. 209 and notes 6 and 7. 

,f Rouanet, Cofcccivrt. . . . FI I, p. 459. 

•* Rouanet, op. cil.. I. 254-55. 

Rouanet. op. cil.. IN', 152. This play has been attributed to Rueda. 

*'• Rouanet. op. cil.. IN'. IX1. Note that these all form gaps created by the author. For gaps 
that the author bridges, see NV. R. Myers in Mod. Philol., VIII, pp. 217 and 363. For these 
technical considerations in the German, see also, Harnmes, op. cil., pp. 16-17, 19, and passim. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


101 


action. Only in a few cases can they be classed as passing- 
scenes. In the Aucto del rey A suero while the banquet is being 
prepared, comes a passage composed of a song by the Trudn, 
and a dialogue of pullas between him and the bobo. In the 
Fuente de Sant Juan , there is a more or less scabrous play that 
introduces a bachiller , an old man, a bobo , and a girl called 
Ursula. It does not belong to the play, and two of the char¬ 
acters do not appear in the auto except in this scene. One of the 
other personages changes completely in the action proper, and 
becomes serious instead of comic. Just after the loa of the 
Resurrecidn de Christo is a passage much like the later baths . 

In the Aucto del finamiento de Jacob there is a scene so com¬ 
pletely separate, and so well rounded out that it is hard to see 
why the author has not called it an entremes. A gypsy flatters 
the bobo and reads his palm, telling him all sorts of ridiculous 
and contradictory things about himself and his future. The 
humor, on the whole, is better and less dependent on roughness, 
than is often the case in the entremes. 

The entremes in the School Drama finds its continuation in 
the Fabella A enaria of Lorenzo Palmyreno. The first performance 
of this play was February 8, 1574. The entremes is found be¬ 
tween the first and second acts. Two bachilleres make merry 
with the daughter of a gaoler. A baile also is used as a passing- 
scene. 31 

Juan de la Cueva’s Comedia del tutor , first played in Seville 
in 1579, has some interesting material for the form. The passage 
is as follows: 

Anda, que sin mds sosiego, 
contigo me verd luego, 
dentro del Alcayceria. 

Ay tan gracioso entremes? 

Hizo en su vida Saldana 
ninguno de tal marana, 
con ser la primera qual es? 33 

The word is here used without question in reference to the new 


•* M6rim6e, L'Arl dramalique h Valencia, pp. 269 and 262. 

” Juan de la Cueva. Comedias y tragedias, I. 366-67. In the following interpretation of 
this passage, a possible ambiguity because of the word hizo has been disregarded. The 
whole situation of the entremes of the period seems clearly to justify the meaning adopted. 



102 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


form. “Was there ever an entremes of Saldana’s equal to this 
2- (trick)?” This is the ultimate sense of the passage. As to 
Saldana, there were two of the name, Luis and Pedro, both 
"? • autores. Pedro seems undoubtedly to be the one mentioned 
here by Cueva since it was he who gave many of the latter’s 
plays, and among them, probably at the estreno , El tutor. 21 
Froni this fact, and from the context of the passage cited, it 
seetgis certain that this Pedro de Saldana wrote entremeses, 
~ otherwise Cueva’s words have no meaning, and from their tenor 
it may be inferred that one of the things for which he was most 
noted was just this composition of these playlets. Possibly 
he was one of the direct successors of Rueda in that work. 
None of his entremeses , so far as is known, have been preserved. 
It has been seen that for the preservation of these fugitive pieces 
there lacked another Timoneda. But one of the important 
things in the words of Cueva is that they give an added proof 
of the fact that entremeses continued to be written; that the 
tradition established by Rueda continued unbroken, and that 
still in 1579 it was the autor , the head of the company of players, 
in whom that tradition mainly found its continuation. This 
is significant. It becomes more than ever certain that one of 
the duties of the autor was to supply entremeses , at least often 
of his own composition, for any given play. This was natural 
since the entremes was still the popular non-literary element, 
undoubtedly felt unw r orthy of their talents by the best authors 
of the time. It was only later that all began to write them. 
Other documents also seem to show the same thing. There is, 
for example, for the year 1594 an agreement with an autor 
for two autos and “in each auto an entremes to the satisfaction 
of the said committee,” 24 and later, perhaps .summing up the 
result of some decades of experience, Carlos Boyl in his Romance 
a un licenciado quo deseaba hacer comcdias says: 

Letras, loas y entremeses 
buscard de mano ajena , 
porque la propia de todos 
_ como propia se condena. 25 

” Sanchez-Arjona, Noticias referenles a los anales del teatro en Sevilla, p. 57 and n. 2, pp. 
52. 45. and especially p. 64. Other mentions passim. Also Rennert, Spanish Stage, p. 592. 

•• Perez Pastor, Nuevos datos (second series) in Bulletin Hispaniqtie, IX, pp. 360-61. 

H B. de A. E., Vol. 43, p. XXVII. The Romance in question was published in a volume of 
1616. IJarrera, Caldlogo, p. 45. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


103 


The usage, then, called for entremeses by another hand. This 
was a wise rule, if only for the variety that it would add. It 
seems probable that the plays of the last decades of the sixteenth 
century were not played without entremeses , and that these 
were for the most part by the autores, the leaders of theatrical 
companies, and not by the authors of the plays themselves. 
If this is the case, it is not strange that so few have been pre¬ 
served with the plays themselves. Perhaps, too, it is not beyond 
reason to suppose that Saldana supplied the entremeses for the 
plays of Cueva. If so, Cueva would have had an additional 
reason to mention him in the passage cited. 

Rey de Artieda’s Los amantes , a play of about the year 1580, 
contains a considerable number of passing-scenes, scarcely 
allied at all to the action, and there were between the acts 
breaks for interludes. These were at least in part musical in 
nature, and may have drawn some of their inspiration from the 
Italian intermezzo. In any case, they do not altogether follow 
the establishing tradition of the entremes . 26 

Were further proof of the continuity and popularity of the 
form necessary, it might be found in the frequent allusions in 
documents and agreements concerning the theater in the closing 
decades of the century. For example, in addition to those already 
cited, there are statements concerning the entremes for the 
years 1575, 1578, 1579, 1582 and 1584. For 1589, there are 
two cases, one of which is an agreement with the autor for three 
autos “con los entremeses que se le ordenaren.” It is evident 
from this that they were to be had in sufficient numbers to 
allow of choice, and it may also indicate that certain ones were 
better known and more popular than others. For July and 
August of 1593, autos with their entremeses are called for. In 
1595, Alonso de Cisneros and Juan Ruiz Mendi made an agree¬ 
ment to play two “autos con entremeses, los que le senalen"; 
1599 has another mention; 1601 another. 27 Sometimes instead 
of the regular entremes it was, as in 1595, songs in the entr’actes 28 ; 


,4 M6rimec, L'Art dramatique d Valencia, pp. 309 and 317. 

17 Perez Pastor. Nuevos datos, pp. 11. 15, 36. 37, 39. 40. Nuevos datos (second series) in 
Bulletin IIispanique, Vol. 8, p. 368. Milego, El Teatro en Toledo, p. 67. Cotarclo, Coleccidn 
. . . in Nuevo B. de A. E., Vol. 17, intro., p. LXIV. 

'* Perez Pastor, Nuevos datos, p. 39. 





THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


104 • 

sometimes dances took its place, but in any case the tradition 
continued uninterrupted. 

While he does not specifically name the form, the author 
of the Comedia Jacobina , published at Toledo in 1590, seems to 
have had it as the main object of his attack when he said in his 
prologue: 

Porque, sin duda, los piadosos animos 
y maduros ingenios (como entiendo que 
serdn los m&s de los que est&n oy6ndome) 

* no se les dando mucho, ni cur&ndose 

de otros manjares que verdades sdlidas, 

. .i n no gustan de patranas ni de fibulas, 

' de maranuelas vanas y ridfculas, 

*r > instrumentillos sdlamente cdmodos 

para rascar las orejuelas jdvenes 
que suelen deleitarse destas ch&caras. 39 

For the year 1598, there is a rather interesting notice. A 
law-suit was begun against D. Silvestre de Guzman for having 
detained the carros. The counsellors had sent an alguacil , 
Hernando Silva, to find out what was the cause of the delay. 
He found them playing the auto. Sent again to bring them “he 
found that (the carro) had finished representing, and was farther 
? on playing the entremes ." 3 ° From this, it appears that it was 
at times the practice with these Corpus autos played from carros , 
to give the entremes , when there was but one, at the end of the 
play. It may be inferred, therefore, that when the records speak 
of '“dos autos para la fiesta del corpus con sus entremeses, 31 
what was at least in some cases intended was that at the end 
of each auto , each played from a separate carro , there should be 
given an entremes. That this would be in all likelihood the 
most suitable place for the secondary form is the more reason¬ 
able to suppose in view of the comparative shortness of some 
of the autos. They would not always permit an easy division, 
though such technical considerations were easily waived by the 

»« Prologue to the Comedia llamada Jacobina of DamiAn de Vegas, pub. in B. dr A. E.. Yol 
35, p. 509. 

>• Sdnchez-Arjona, Noticias referentes a los anales del tralro en Sevilla, p. 96 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


105 


early players. Of this, the autos of the Rouanet collection are a 
proof. The entremts, then, came as an offset to the religious 
performance. Often, of course, probably when the amount 
of funds available for the purpose was sufficient for such luxury, 
more than one entrernes was played with each auto. What their 
location in that case may have been cannot be definitely ascer¬ 
tained. The words “en cada auto” give no clue. The indica¬ 
tions already mentioned from the Rouanet collection add little 
except to show that.even when only one auto was used it might 
break in on the play. Their position, however, was after all a 
secondary consideration. What was desired was the greatest 
possible amount of comic representation. 33 

For the same year, 1598, there is record of a payment to 
Cristbbal de Chaves for an entr ernes “ that he made for one of the 
carros for the Corpus festival in which are represented the 
notable things of the city.” After Timoneda, if he may be 
counted in the number, it is the first record of a litterateur writing 
entr emeses. 

Since Chaves wrote the famous Rclacion de la edreel de Sevilla , 
it has been conjectured 33 that he also wrote the entr ernes, La 
edreel de Sevilla , which was published in 1617 in the seventh 
part of the comedies of Lope de Vega. The Hospital de los 
podridos has also been assigned to him. Both attributions are 
very uncertain, and neither could have anything to do with the 
entr ernes mentioned above. Of more probable authenticity, 
and certainly of much earlier date, is the Entremts dt un viejo 
ques casado con una mujer moza. It bears at the close the name 
of Chaves. 34 The inspiration is from a story of Boccaccio, 
and the eroticism, even were the source unknown, such as to 
class it as probably Italian in origin. It is noteworthy that 
where a truly Spanish erotic element is found it is essentially 


** P6rez Pastor, Nuevos datos, p. 11. 

” SSnchez-Arjona, op. cit., pp. 98-99. 

14 Pub. by G. L. Lincoln in Rev. Hisp., Vol. 22. pp. 427-436, and by Cotarclo as number 14 
of his Coleccidn. Prof. Northup in his Ten Spanish Farces (intro., p. XIII) mentions a scenario 
in the Bartoli collection, Gli Intrighi d'Amore ovvero la Finestra Incantata which has an intrigue 
very similar to that of the entremes under consideration. There is, however, reason to sup¬ 
pose the Italian play of much later date than the entremes which, therefore, cannot look to 
it as a source. Moreover, the scenario indicates a well-developed comedy, not a passing-play 
in any sense. 




106 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


distinct in quality, partly by reason of its crudity, from that of 
s (Jtte„Italian. The entremes in question is in prose, and from its 
*>;. general character seems clearly to belong to the sixteenth 
century. 

■ ;The entremcses that can definitely be placed in the last two 
" decades of the sixteenth century are very few. Where it is 
necessary to depend upon the character of the handwriting to 
determine their approximate date, an error in placing them too 
late?is of less serious moment than one in placing them too early. 
Such pntremeses , then, as seem by the writing of the manuscript 
'to have some claim to the last years of the sixteenth century, 
are in the present study reserved for the period immediately 
following. 

At the close of the Comedia Fenisa , there is a passo del Portu - 
g ue$. Jt is found appended to the edition of 1625; it is not, 

■ apparently, in that of 1588 from which Gallardo reprinted the 
play. 35 . As for the edition of 1540, no one but Moratm seems 
to have given an account of it, and it is not possible to deter¬ 
mine whether the passo was appended to it, if such an edition 
ever really existed. Moratfn, in his list of characters taken 
ostensibly from that edition, 36 does not mention either the 
! Portuguese or the page. In any case, judging from its structure, 
from the fact that, while written in verse, it has nothing in com¬ 
mon with the versification that was employed by 1625 in the 
entremes , and to some extent by the use of the word passo as 
> synonymous with entremes , it cannot be of 1625, and seems rather 
to be more nearly contemporary with the time of Timoneda. 

<■ »• The situation is that already found several times during or 
prior to that period. A Portuguese, boastful and addicted to 
c sentimental songs, is duped and mocked by his page. 

' In spite of its mediocre qualities there are certain points 
interest in the Entremes del mundo y no nadie 37 Its title 
ascribes it to Rueda, but in nothing is it like his work, and cer¬ 
tainly belongs to another hand. 38 From its generally serious, 


"Gallardo, El Critic fin, 1858, No. 8, pp. 29-46. 

Moratin, Orieenes in D. de A. E., Vol. 2, p. 193. 

Pub. by I'oulche-Dolbopc in Rev. Ilisp., Vol. 7, pp. 251-255. 
•>' Cotarclo, Esludios de historia literaria, I, pp. 236-37. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 107 

somewhat didactic tone, one would be inclined to see the hand 
of a cleric. It is in verse, but like the entremSs to the Comedia 
Fenisa this is not distinctive in form, which at least proves that 
it belongs before the verse period in the entremSs. There is an 
attempt at allegory and metaphor that sounds strange in the 
entremSs. Such an attempt would be less unusual in the German 
Zwischenspiel , and to some extent even in the Italian intermezzo. 
Near the close is a disputa between Nadie and Mundo. The 
dispute was very common in older Spanish, but this is rather 
a late example of it. Likewise the theme of El Mundo y No 
Nadie is here by no means unique in Spain. 39 The last lines 
show that this entremSs was intended for representation at the 
beginning of a play. From the evidence available, it may elate 
not later than the period of Timoneda’s publications. 

The date ’83 that occurs in the EntremSs del estrolago borracho 
has lead Cotarelo to believe that it was written in that year.’ 0 
This may be the case, although that seems a little early in view 
of the considerable development of form it shows. The title 
is scarcely a true indication of the content. It is a study of the 
characters that frequent an inn of low type. The picture is 
fairly well drawn as a whole though it does not stand out as an 
especially able piece of work. In material, this entremSs follows 
the same general lines of a tendency in the form that began 
with the second of the Registro de representantes. 

Considerably more primitive in structure, except for the use 
of a song at the end, a new departure in the entremSs, &nd one 
that later became customary, is the EntremSs de un hijo que 
nego a su padreA 1 By far the most interesting thing about it is 
that it offers an example of the extempore in the passo. .Near 
the close a stage-direction reads: “aqui le hacen que ensene 
la lengua por fuerza, y en esto puede el Villano decir lo que 
mas le llegara a cuento.” And again after a speech or two: 
“aqui lo apoda el Villano los apodos que mejor le cuadraren." 
Here is a clear example, and perhaps the earliest in the history 


'•Crawford, Spanish Drama before Lope de Vega. p. 134. Unite, Niemand und Jcmand in 
Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellchaft, Vol. XXIX. 

•Cotarelo, Coleccion ... in Nuevo B. de A. E.. Vol. 17, intro., p. LX1I. 

‘Hub. by J. P. W. Crawford and also Cotarelo, op. cit.. No. 11. 



THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


108 

r 9jf .the form, in proof of the fact that what Italy knew in the 
commedia dell'arte was not altogether unknown in Spain. The 
action as here outlined follows exactly in the footsteps of the 
Italian where such tricks and rough play were the rule. If this 
entremes , as seems certain, belongs to the last decades of the 
sixteenth century, it falls in the very period when Ganassa 
and the Italians were most influential in Spain, 42 and it is not 
hard to see here their direct influence. It must be observed, 
however, that the Italian usage itself went much further than 
this. The commedia dell'arte consists almost entirely of such 
.. skeleton outlines. Where they occur in the entremes , as here, 
they are altogether minor, and of no great importance. Like 
the lazzi, they could be omitted without loss. In the entremes , 
the main action in every case is carefully and fully written out, 
and complete in itself. 43 

At t,he end of the century, the form was still definitely in 
prose; great numbers of entremeses were being used, and their 
function and structure were well understood. There was already 
a strong tendency to make the entremes literary as well as popular, 
an impulse that is to be noted in a more complicated intrigue, 
as far as complication was possible in so short a play, in an in¬ 
crease in its length, in the use of a greater number of personages, 
and in a tendency to employ proper names for the characters 
in place of the generic type-names that had been the custom, 
* with rtlimerous exceptions, however, in the earlier years of its 
development. Finally, the movement toward a literary form 
can be observed in the more restricted use of mere horse-play 
and rough language, in favor of a greater sobriety, and a type 
of humor less strictly popular in character and appeal. The 
new form was to belong henceforth increasingly to the literary 
’ man rather than to the hack-writing autor; to the theater rather 
than the street corner or the inn with its makeshift appoint¬ 
ments, makeshift play, and chance audience. 

V J ■' 5 _• 

'* Bartoli, Scenari inediti della commedia dell'arte, intro., p. CXXIX-CXXX; Dricsen, Der 
Ursprung des Harlekin, p. 229 n. 1. On the time of this entremes, see Rennert, Spanish Stage, 
p. 406. 

« Directions for extempore acting are found in the German Zuischenspiel at least as early 
as 1601. Cf. Hammes, Das Zwischenspiel im deutschen Drama in Literarhistorische Forschungen, 
XLV, pp. 87 and 99. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


109 


V 

' ki 

The Seventeenth Century to Cervantes 

One of the clearest proofs of the importance the new genre 
had assumed by the beginning of the seventeenth century is 
its frequent recognition in laws regulating theatrical perform¬ 
ances. In the year 1600, a convocation of theologians and 
counsellors called together by the king "to confer, and arrange 
the conditions under which comedies may be permitted” decided 
that both comedies and entremeses must be submitted for censor¬ 
ship, and that "evil or lascivious matter be not admitted ^ . . 

either in the principal part or in the entremeses." 1 In 1615, 
there is record of another very similar decree 3 ; and in 1641, 
in the city of Madrid was promulgated another in nearly identical 
terms. 3 There is an example of censorship for the year 1600. 
The document reads as follows: "en el entrem£s de La Alameda 
de Sevilla no diga el rufidn aquellos donaires de la cafda de 
los dngeles malos, guardada siempre la honestidad que se debe. 
En Madrid, a 10 de Noviembre de 1600.” 4 Sdnchez-Arjona 
says that the entremSs in question exists in manuscript in the 
Biblioteca Nacional. It does not, however, appear to be listed 
in the Paz y Melia Catdlogo. As Schack suggests, the restric¬ 
tions seem not to have been long observed, 5 and their repetition, 
as noted above, seems to have served but little to that end. 
Another case of censorship is to be noted for the year 1609. 6 
Mariana in his Liber de spectaculis , also of 1609, complains of 
the profanation of churches and even convents "con entremeses 
y bailes indecentes.” 7 As late as 1649, D. Luis Crespi de Borja 


* Schack, Historia de la lit. y arte dram, en Espafta, II, 277-79. S&nchez-Arjona, Noticias 
referentes a los anales del teatro en Sevilla, pp. 101-2. 

* SSnchez-Arjona, op. cit., p. 168. 

* SSnchez-Arjona, op. cit., pp. 351-52. 

* SSnchez-Arjona, op. cit., p. 108 and note 1. 

* Schack, op. cit., II, 281-82. 

* SAnchez-Arjona, El teatro en Sevilla, pp. 58-59. 

» Schack, op. cit., II, 280-81. 



no 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


in his denouncement of the theatre 8 says, “Muchas veces he 
predicado que las comedias que se representan en Espana, 
con bailes y entremeses lascivos , no son licitas. . . . Ni 

las comedias suelen hacer aprobar los bailes y entremeses , ni el 
modo de representar estd en el papel: antes lo suelen aHadir 
despues de revistas las comedias." 9 It is evident that the entremes 
sought by all means to escape the censorship, and to maintain 
itself as a free outlet for the popular expression, denied speech 
in' the comedy itself. 

To the year 1599, can be assigned definitely two entremeses. 
Th$ fjrst is, according to a statement at its close, by Martin 
cle Santander who, like Rueda, was leader of a troop of actors. 
THis Entremes de los ladrones convertidos , entitled also Los 
ladroftes burlados, is in prose. In type, it follows the style of 
Rueda, The dialogue is good, and it closes in the boisterous 
manner of the earlier entremeses. What especially distinguishes 
it from the primitive specimens of the form is the greater com¬ 
plication of the action, and the frequent change of scene with 
the coming and going of actors. It shows that the crude, hap- 
. hazard scenes were giving way to a more settled type. The 
situation is that of thief against thief; the theft of some stolen 
money that the original thieves try to steal back again. 10 

t ■ ‘1 ' ' 

The second for the year 1599 is the Entremes del platillo of 
^im6n ; Aguado. It was written for the marriage of Philip the 
Third ? in that year, but, as the one discussed above was not 
, copied in its present form until 1607, so this entremes is dated 
, ° ; by the copyist July 16, 1602." While the greater part of the 
action is pro.se, this serves only to form a connecting thread 
for the songs and dances interspersed through it. Though 
ijt, does not illustrate in any sense the developed form, here are 
ito be seen the first stirrings of the entremes cantado that a little 
later became of considerable importance as one of the divisions 
of the form. In this single example, the entremSs cantado seems 


* Rrspucsta a una consu/ta sobre si son licitas las comedias que se usan en EspaHa. Cf. Gallardo, 
Ensayo. II. No. 1943. 

♦ I’. 26 of Borja. op. cit. 

>• Cotarclo, Coleccidn ... in op. cit., Vol. 17, No. 20. 

" Barrera, Catdlogo, p. 6. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


111 


to have a certain similarity to the French ballet de cour. Here 
also for the first time, so far as documents for the genre show, 
appears the chacona , and the Indiano. This character and the 
context, as has been pointed out,” seem to indicate the American 
origin of the dance. The name Harlequin is also found here 
in its earliest appearance in the entrem£s , and possibly the earliest 
in the Spanish drama. Aguado says that it was one of the names 
given to the toca to attract the women. From this, it would 
seem that the word, taken over, of course, from the Italian 
plays then popular in Spain, was in vogue on Spanish soil at the 
time. Inasmuch as such vogues neither last long, nor recur 
easily within a considerable period of time, it seems probable 
that the word Harlequin was at the time comparatively new in 
Spain. 

The EntremSs de los negros by the same author, dated August 
10, 1602, though possibly written somewhat earlier, is also for 
the most part in prose. The dancing and music are, however, 
as in that of the Platillo, its most striking feature. From these 
two entremeses , Aguado must be classed as a forerunner of 
Benavente in the creation of the entremes cantado , even though 
he did not conceive of a completely musical form, for in both 
cases his basis is prose. Nevertheless, it serves only as a vehicle 
for the musical parts of his plays. His work introduces these 
new elements, music and dancing, on the background of the 
form as developed by Rueda into a short prose playlet with 
keen, sparkling dialogue, set off by striking character-types, 
and with its situations punctuated by coarse, rough action. 
In Aguado’s work, this last element is largely displaced by the 
music, or by mass-action as in the Negros where a stage-direction 
reads, “Van entrando todos los negros que puedan en orden, 
danzando la zarabanda, con tamboriles y sonajas, y dan la 
vuelta al teatro .” 13 Aguado evidently understood stage effect, 
and in this as well as in his other innovations took a by no 
means unimportant step in advance. His works, too, show a 
finish surprising for the date at which they were written. There 

w Barrera, loc. cit. Also Cotarelo, op. cit., intro., p. CCXI. 

«., Cotarelo, Coleccidn ... in op. cit., Vol. 17, p. 2.14. Both the Platillo and the Negros 
were also published in the Revista de Archivos. 




112 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


is a third ettlremis of his, the Ermitaiio , still unpublished. 14 
He is likewise the author of the Mojiganga de los ninos de Rollona 
que pasa en las calles. ls This work, entirely in verse of 
course, seems to belong to a later date than his entremeses. The 
Paz y Melia Cdtalogo also lists (No. 2627. Barrera, p. 641) an 
eniremis entitled La Plaza del Retiro , likewise by Aguado. He 
was evidently a rather fertile, and as has been seen very early, 
entremesista. 

Fdr the year 1602, there is record of another entremSs evidently 
riiusical along the same lines as those of Aguado. The document 
that records it reads as follows: “El premio del entremes se 
de a niculas de los rrios, por el entremes de las dangas de las 
aldeas.” This Rfos is undoubtedly the famous autor of that 
name. Here is then a proof that the entremes even as late as 
1602 was sometimes the work of the leader of the theatrical 
troop: that it had not yet passed entirely into the hands of the 
literati. And here once more is probably the type of the fore¬ 
runner of the entremes cantado. 16 For August 15, 1602, there 
is record of a payment made to Baltasar Victoria for a play, 
*‘&nd various musical interludes.” 17 

This tendency toward music in the entremes in Spain may 
have been to some extent in response to Italian influences, so 
strong at about this period. It was in Italy about the time of 
the rise of the melodramma which grew up there from the musical 
interlude. 18 It is to be noted, however, that if the impulse 
toward music in Spain seems to come from Italy, the splendor 
; of the latter’s intermezzi , with their pomp and circumstance, 
and their marked tendency toward scenic effects and allegory, 
was not even attempted in Spain until many years later. 
External influence might exert a certain pressure, and even to 
some degree direct the channels in which the entremes was to 


»« Barrera, Cat&logo, p. 6. 

»« Cotarelo, op. cit., p. 222. 

•‘Cortes, Noticias de una corte liter aria, pp. 31-32. 

'*M6rimee. Spectacles el comediens d Valencia, p. 149. 

*» See among others on the subject: Solerti, Le Origini del melodramma, esp. pp. 186-207; 
D’Ancona, II Tealro mantovano del sec. XVI; Salza, Un dramma pastorale inedito del cinquecento 
in Giornale Storico. LIV; Saviotti, Feste e spettacoli nel seicento in Giornale Storico, XLI; Solerti- 
Lanza, II Tealro ferrarese nella seconda meta del secolo XVI in Giornale Storico, XVIII; Croce. 
I teatri di Napoli; D’Ancona. Origini. I. 521 and passim. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


113 


move, but at heart it remained always Spanish in its primitive¬ 
ness, its humor, and the sentiment that underlay it. 

Tdrrega’s mention of Antonio Baldes, “caporal de los Far- 
Cantes,” in connection with the entremSs does not make it clear 
whether this is another case of an autor as composer, dr only 
as a player of the form. 19 Tdrrega himself in his Esposo fingtdo, 
act three, has a sort of baile de villanos 70 and accompanying 
his Enemiga favorable is a Baile de Leganitos , probably not of 
his own composition. It is much like an entremh. 71 At this 
date, the distinction between the baile and the entremSs was at 
times extremely slight. 

For 1605, there is mention of comedians playing entremeses 
from door to door before the homes of important personages.” 

It is evident that they were still given from the carros. In 1609, 
the company of Rios likewise played entremeses with the autos 
they gave from the carros 7i 

Rojas in his Viaje, published in 1603, speaks of Villegas as 
having written “forty entremeses.” 3 * While the numbers 
given by Spanish writers are often notoriously inaccurate, 
Rojas’ statement gives added emphasis to the conjecture that 
greater numbers of entremeses were written during this period 
than the number of those extant would seem to indicate. 

It is interesting to note the company in which Rojas puts the 
entr em 6s: 

Publicase por el cielo 
que se hagan fiestas solemnes, 
que se encienden luminarias, 
haya toros con cohetes, 
canas, justas y torneos, 
haya saraos y banquetes, 
mdscaras, y encamisadas, 
buenas farsas y entremeses. 35 

*♦ M6rim6e, Spectacles et comidiens d Valencia, p. 240 n. I. 

*• MerimSe, op. cit., p. 91 n. 2. 

’* M6rim6e. VArt dramatique d Valencia, p. 475; Ticknor. II, 278 and 279, and note 4. 

" Cortes, Noticias de una corte literaria, pp. 30-31. 

** Sdnchez-Arjona, El teatro en Sevilla, pp. 58-59. 

'* Rojas, Viaje entretenido, I, 93. 

** Rojas, op. cit., I, 164. 



114 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


This smacks of the days before the entremSs was a form, and 
illustrates its persistence in popular channels. 

From the same writer’s statements , 26 it is certain that no 
company of his age went unprovided with these little plays. 
They were an inseparable part of the repertoire. Rojas’ own 
talent impelled him toward the form as scenes of his Natural 
desdichado show. If many of them are not true entremeses in 
separability from the plot, in subject-matter and style they 
are at least an approximation to the form, and demonstrate that 
Rojas, whether or not he wrote entremeses , thought in terms 
of the genre . 37 

How important these little pieces were considered is shown 
by such statements as those of Ricardo de Turia in his A polo- 
getico de las comedias espanolas 2g \ by that of the Fleming who, 
visiting Spain at some time about the middle of the seventeenth 
century, remarked that between the jornadas there were en- 
treiycses or bailes which often were the best part of the play 29 ; 
and by that of the impresario, cited by Pellicer, who speaks 
of the baric as the “salsa de las comedias .” 30 Both the cntremes 
• and her sister-form the baile are the “crutches” that main- 

! | -3. 

tain the piece. It is interesting to compare this devotion to 
the cntremes with the situation in Italy where the writers from 
the fifteenth century onward assert, “altro non chieggano gli 
spettatori che I’intermedio,” and “gia si solevan fare gl’ Inter- 
medj che servissero alia Commedia: ma ora si fanno le Com- 
medie che servono agl’ Intermedj .” 31 From such relationships 
and affinities that run all through the form wherever found, 


** Rojas, op. cit., I, 150-52. 

Paz y Melia. El natural desdichado ... in Revista de Archivos, V, 1901, pp. 44, 234, 

725. 

’• B. de A. E.. Vol. 43, pp. XXIV-XXVI. Also Schack, III, 227 n. 

** Cit., Schack, II, 246. 

j»Cit., Morel-Fatio, note to Arte nuevo in Bulletin Hispanique, III, p. 394. 

11 D’Ancona, Origini, I, 521 and II, 167-68. 11 Cocchio, cit. Prunieres, Le Ballet de Cour 
en France, p. 32 n. 1. See also p. 29. These intermedj of great pomp seem to have been much 
favored by the Cardinal Bibbiena (1470-1520). It is at about this time that these complaints 
begin to be made in Italy. The importance of the entremes, and the resultant complaints, 
fhll much later in Spain, of course. 

It may also be noted here, once for all, that a series of entremeses was sometimes played 
as a sort of vaudeville without the use of a larger form. When they were given in this way, 
l he resulting play was called a folia. Cf. Cotarelo, Coleccidn ... in op. cit., intro., p. 
CCCXIV. Also the dictionaries that he cites there for definitions. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 115 

it is certain that the entrernes in Spain is in the broader sense 
part of a general movement in the theater, the psychology of 
which would make an interesting contribution to the history 
of the drama. The entr ernes, however, for all that, is none the 
less individual and native to Spain. 

In addition to those late sixteenth and early seventeenth 
century entr emeses already examined, there are extant a few 
that have been published in the well-known collection by 
Cotarelo in the Nueva biblioteca de autores espanoles. A few 
others, and possibly some as yet unknown, lie in the archives 
of Spain. The Cotarelo collection, however, offers sufficient 
material to determine the further movements of the genre until 
the time of Cervantes, which is the object of the rest of the 
present chapter. 

Of those not yet examined, Cotarelo lists Numbers 19 and 
30 of his collection as “letra del siglo XVI ; 12, 17, and 18 
“letra de fines del siglo XVI”; 21 and 22 “letra del principle 
del siglo XVII;” and 13, 15, 16, and 61 “letra del siglo XVII.” 
From so uncertain evidence as the handwriting, it is not pos¬ 
sible to say definitely that all of these antedate 1615, the date 
of publication of the enlrcmeses of Cervantes. Nevertheless, 
internal evidence seems to show that most of them fall before 
that date; and by the same evidence, most appear to belong 
to the very close of the sixteenth century at the earliest. 

Of these eleven, only three, Numbers 13, 22, and 61, are in 
verse. Prose, therefore, strongly predominates as might be 
expected. It is significant, notwithstanding, that verse was 
beginning to creep in, although it was not until after the first 
quarter of the seventeenth century that Benavente’s practice 
being accepted as model, and with the predominance in the 
form of literary tendencies, verse became the established medium 
for its expression, entirely supplanting the movement initiated 
by Rueda and his contemporaries. 

Both the Test amen to de los ladrones (No. 19) and Pero Her - 
ndndez (No. 30) are “second entremeses,” that is to say, that 
there was a preceding part to which in each case the one men¬ 
tioned belongs. This first part is needed to explain allusions 
in the second. It is probable that the two divisions were origi- 




116 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


nallyiplayed between the acts of a single play. The same thing 
has already been noted with two of Rueda’s passos. The cn- 
tremis of Pero Herndndez is the counterpart of entrernes quinto , 
published in the first part of the comedies of Lope de Vega in 
1609, and Number 29 of the Cotarelo collection. The name 
appears as Pedro in the piece from the comedies of Lope, but 
the action clearly shows that the two belong together. To¬ 
gether, they form in some sense a two-act play to be used at 
separate intervals in another. From the fact that the second 
part was published as late as 1609, it seems unlikely that the 
first can belong to the sixteenth century, as Cotarelo classifies 
it from the handwriting. 

An untitled entremes (No. 12), called by Cotarelo Los Fuelles , 
is evidently of early date. It begins with a long soliloquy in¬ 
tended to help the audience to understand the background of 
u t the action. .Such a prologue in the form of a soliloquy is very 
common in the earlier entremes. It is an acknowledgment of 
i weakness in technique on the part of an author. The situation 
, r in this entremes is altogether silly. It seems to belong to the 
•class of those used by the wandering company, and probably 
was composed by an autor of not much ability. Marital in¬ 
fidelity of the type commonly found in the Italian theater of 
the time, and the stupidity of the simple make up the whole 
play. It has certain points of resemblance with the Entremes 
. dp un viejo qucs casado con una mujer moza. 

- H ? Another entremes without title, Number 17 of the collection, 
belongs to the same tradition. A husband is made to burn his 
h ^house to get rid of the ghosts that, according to his wife’s state¬ 
ment, haunt it, while she makes good her escape with a sacristan 
during the confusion. The Entremes de un muchacho , llamado 
. , , Golondrino . . . (No. 18) is wholly true to the Spanish 

tradition. It is a study of the lowest classes of society, and of 
the love affairs of the chief characters. If the action is not 
altogether unified, the picture is fairly well drawn, and gives 
a good view of the life of such people. In the Spanish theater, 
r; the entremes is the form par excellence for such studies. 

Still another untitled entremes (No. 21) shows how far the 
development had gone in the matter of complicated intrigue 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 117 

since the time of Rueda. It opens with a soliloquy directed 
to the audience. A maid-servant loves Palomino, a sacristdn. 
She agrees to flee with him, and promises to steal from her 
mistress whatever clothing she can lay her hands on. The 
mistress, who also loves Palomino, hears of the intended rendez¬ 
vous of her maid and the man she loves. She determines 4 to be 
present disguised as the maid. Pablos, a servant, tells the 
husband of his wife’s intention, and he, too, prepares to be 
on hand, hidden in some bundles of clothing, the very ones 
that the maid intended to steal. The mistress, in disguise, meets 
Palomino, and they go off to bed. The maid enters, and thinks 
that a gentleman there present is Palomino. An alguacil catches 
them together, and then discovers the master and Pablo in the 
bundles of clothing. A moment later, the mistress and Palomino 
are brought in wrapped in the bedding. All are put under 
arrest, and the scene ends in a general fight. With all this 
described in a few pages of text, it is no wonder that the author 
thought it necessary to acquaint his audience with the plot by 
means of soliloquies. 

It is doubtful whether all of the entremeses listed by Cotarelo 
as “handwriting of the seventeenth century” can be dated before 
those of Cervantes. They show the hesitation between prose 
and verse that went on until past the first quarter of the century, 
and at the same time illustrate the reaching out for novelty of 
effect that naturally went with the rising tide of theatrical art 
in Spain. The Entremes de las gorronas (No. 22) appears to be 
late, but not too late to show an experiment in the forms of 
versification. It has romances, redondillas, and even a sonnet. 
The structure is good, and from a lyrical, if not wholly from a 
dramatic point of view, the playlet is successful. It forms a 
rather complete example of what may be called the semi-aristo¬ 
cratic type. 

The Sacrislia de Mocejdn (No. 13) evidently belongs to school 
drama. It is such in both subject and treatment that it seems 
hardly likely that it was intended for the general public. It 
contains a farcical sermon, or rather speech, showing again that 
to obtain material for the form all tradition was ransacked. 
The Entremes de los relojes (No. 61) is a rather abortive and 


118 


THE EARLY ENT REM&S IN SPAIN: 


*>** ;jv-; * i f . 

frjgid ^attempt at allegory. If it was in any wise inspired by 
allegory in the Italian intermezzi , which is at least possible, the 
author has failed completely to understand his models. 

About the first two-thirds of the Famoso entremes de Mazalquivi 
(No. 15) is in prose; the last third is verse. It is built about the 
leadership of a ruffian chieftain who gives his name to the play, 
and it belongs to the “thief and ruffian” tradition already 
noted several times in the entremes. Because of a reference to 
the battle of Saint Quentin which it contains, Cotarelo has sup¬ 
posed that this entremts was written about that date. 32 Inas¬ 
much as the impression made by this famous battle was such 
that even today it exists in the form of popular sayings, there 
seems to be no reason to believe that the entremes can be dated 
by. such an allusion. It certainly cannot have been written 
nrany years before the beginning of the seventeenth century. 

- In the Entremes famoso de la mamola (No. 16), a certain Sofia 
makes three men believe that she has borne them a child. When 
they bring apparel and presents for the christening, she flees 
with her lover, just returned from the galleys, leaving each of 
her three followers a note in which she makes sport of his 
credulity. The scene ends with the simple administering a 
, thrashing to the three dupes. 

In the Doze comedias famosas de quatro poctas . . . de 

Valencia, 1608, 33 is the Entremes del maestro de escuelas. It is 
A primitive play in the popular vein in which one servant tricks 
another into a thrashing. For the date, it shows retrogression 
rather than advance. 

The first part of the comedies of Lope de Vega, published 
in 1609, contains twelve entreme~ses. Only one is in verse. Lope 
distinctly disclaimed authorship of the entremeses published 
with his plays. 34 Dr. Rennert has thought that this disclaimer 
must not be taken too literally, and it is quite possible that 
some of them do belong to Lope. 

The Meliscndra is in every way an experiment. In verse, 

•-.-7T 

JJ Cotarelo, Coleccton ., intro., p. LXII. 

'»■ \ « Barrera. CaldloRo, p. 677. 

**B. de A. R., Vol. 52, intro., p. XXIV, col. 2. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


119 

It is composed of a loa and two jornadas. The characters are 
mainly from the higher classes, but the treatment is burlesque. 
It is interesting to note that one of the personages is the Emperor 
Charlemagne. And this is an entremSs from a collection of 
plays under Lope’s name, the man who said: 

porque entremes de rey jamds se ha visto! 35 

Men6ndez y Pelayo, however, feels convinced that it is not 
from the pen of Lope, in spite of the fact that it is in a collec¬ 
tion of his comedies. The play as a whole forms a sort of satire 
on the love-intrigue of the kind found in the chansons de geste. It 
is, of course, a direct parody on the theme of Gaiferos and 
Melisendra. This ballad subject was very popular in Spain, 
and, says Men6ndez y Pelayo, still exists in Portugal and Cata¬ 
lonia. The stories of the Carolingian cycle were known in the 
Iberian peninsula from very remote times. Their popularity , 
there made this theme all the more suitable a subject for parody, 
and in entremSs literature as well as in some of the other secondary 
dramatic forms, burlesques on the subject, especially that of 
Gaiferos and Melisendra, became common. 36 The entremes 
here under discussion is probably the first example in the genre 
of treatment of the theme. 

The Padre enganado is an excellent entremes. An old man 
tries to prevent his daughter from having suitors. To better 
accomplish his end, he discharges the hobo for carrying her 
love-letters. Her gallant introduces the same bobo, disguised 
as a woman, into the old man’s house. Then he comes for his 
supposed ward, and instead elopes with the daughter. They 
are married, and after the intervention of the good offices of a 
neighbor, receive the parental benediction. The characters, 
especially the old man, the bobo who torments him into a con¬ 
tinual frenzy, and the neighbor as peacemaker are well drawn. 
The dialogue is good, and the humor is far less strained than 
is usual in most of the early entremeses. It is the prose entremes 


« Arte nuevo. 

3 * Men€ndez y Pelayo, Atilologta, Vol. XII, chapter on Romances caballerescos del cielo 
Carolingio, esp. pp. 378-386 and notes. Wolf-Hofmann, Primavera y flor de romances. I, 
intro., pp. L and LI, and LXXXV n. 29. For Romances de Gaiferos, idem., II, 222 el. seq ; 
of Melisendra, II, 417. Cf. also C. Nigra, II Moro saracino in Romania, XIV, 231 -273. 



120 


THE EARLY ENTREMLS IN SPAIN: 


at 11$ best. While examples of the form as well developed as 
.this,are rather rare before Cervantes, an occasional one goes to 
show that it was beginning to take its place among the works of 
literature. 

The Capeador is a rollicking play of a thief who tries to teach 
the bobo to steal. When the latter makes the attempt, he is 
fobbed by his intended victim of sword, hood, and coat. The 
- Doctor Simple is a re-working on a far better plane of the first 
passo of the Registro de representantes. Los alimentos , a sketch 
f of a father with a worthless son, contains one of the best examples 
of the bobo in the entremes. The dialogue is also well done, and 
* the' humor almost modern in its appeal. The action of Los 
negros de Santo Tome is very slight. The last scene of the piece 

to the accompaniment of music and dancing. It lies somewhat 
. hlong the lines of those of Aguado, already examined. The 
EntremSs del Indiano is very short. It is the story of the box 
supposed to contain money and jewels left in care of a stranger 
in exchange for some hard cash. The trick is as old as the Cid 
in Spanish literature, and its equivalent has already been noted 
in tb e entremes. In this play, the bobo acts as an echo of the 
true situation, a role somewhat allied to that seen in certain 
passages from Badajoz. 

Several of these enlremeses are certainly by the same hand. 
The characteristics of the personages, the dialogue, the quality 
‘ of the humor, and the similarity of the structure all show unity 
of authorship. It is possible that the same author may also be 
credited with some of the others in the same collection, but that 
is*not quite so clearly demonstrable. 

r ’ La cuna and Los ladrones engahados are the shortest in the 
collection. The latter is the Ladrones convertidos in a shortened 
form. The former is from the point of view of subject of little 
moment. It is much like some of the separate scenes of the 
mid-sixteenth century. The Dama fingida may possibly be 
by the same author as those mentioned above. The suits of 
two rival lovers, the intrigue made more complicated by the 
servants, form the plot. In the Endemoniada, a lover pretends 
himself a conjuror. He affects to cure his sweetheart who is 
feigning that she is bewitched. After the supposed cure, the 


THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 121 

pretended conjuror orders that she be given some food. The 
bobo, imagining that this is a good way to secure the coveted 
meal, takes it into his head to pretend that he also is bewitched. 
For his pains, he receives a thrashing. It is but a variation, 
and an adaptation to Spanish conditions, of a theme as old as 
>Esop, that finds its modern counterpart in nearly all literatures. 
Its best re-working since the renaissance is in La Fontaines 
fable of L'Ane et le petit chien. 11 

In the third part of the comedies of Lope de Vega, 1612, there 
are three entremeses , all in verse. Los huevos is a domestic scene 
that recalls somewhat Rueda’s Las aceitunas , but it is much 
less successfully done than its predecessor. Especially the close 
in which the husband threatens to have his wife buried if she 
does not obey him is strained and overdrawn. This playlet 
contains a rehearsal scene for a Corpus auto , a situation already 
found in an entremes from the Examen sacrum. Such similari¬ 
ties, however, do not necessarily indicate that the writer of this 
play had any knowledge of his predecessors, though he may at 
least have known of Rueda. The verse is mainly redondillas 
with the exception of the rehearsal scene which is in hendeca- 
syllables, and another passage which is in prose. Cotarelo 
thinks this prose passage is a corruption of another hendeca- 
syllabic one. The scene in which the rehearsal takes place forms 
in some manner a sort of entremes within an entremes. .The 
Sacristan Soguijo is in romancillos. A certain sacristdn had 
promised to marry a girl, and then jilted her. In her defense, 
a gallant disguises himself as a ghost, and frightens the recal¬ 
citrant lover into compliance. The character-study is nil, 
and as a whole this entremes makes no advance over a number 
of more or less similar scenes that belong to the earliest period 
of the genre. Music and dancing, however, had come since 
then to be a rather general accompaniment of the form, and 
with them the play closes. The Entremes de los romances is a 
take-off on the Quijote, certainly not, as Adolfo de Castro sup¬ 
posed, a “bosquejo” of that famous work. 38 The versification 


11 La Fontaine, Fables. Bk. IV, No. V. 
j« Cf. Bonilla, Las Bacantes, p. 149 n. 1. 




THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


122 


is varied, including quintillas , romances , romancillos and re- 
dortdillas. As is the case with all three of these entr emeses , 
t e writer seems to have been experimenting with verse in the 
new form. It shows the beginning of the transition, the first 
attempts toward a breaking away from prose. The plot follows 
m bnef the Quijote, but the merit of the parody is not great. 
This entremes seems to be by the same author as the Melisendra. 

A number of entremeses other than those of his known col¬ 
ection have been attributed to Cervantes. Castro was especially 
ertile in such attributions in his Varias obras ineditas de Cer- 
r *. vantes . (1874). The Entremes de los mirones can scarcely be 
cafled in any sense dramatic: there is hardly any more action 
t an in such a work as the Colloquio de los perros. It consists 
of a series of more or less scabrous anecdotes, supposedly picked 
up from happenings in the city seen by “observers” sent out 
by a sort of club or society with this as its purpose. These 
anecdotes are tied together loosely by dialogue, and the so- 
called play is more a series of cuentos not unlike those collec¬ 
tions familiar from the “Arabian Nights” onward. This en¬ 
tremes is considerably longer than the average, and ends with 
a dance that is forced in without any dramatic connection with 
the story itself. Though it may have been staged—almost 
any 1 dialogue can be staged—it is rather narration than drama. 
One direction indicates improvization: “aqui hacen cumpli- 
iriientos entre los dos sobre cual ha de comenzar.” A similar 
situation has been noted in another entremes. Other than such 
sporadic cases, all spoken parts in the form are always written 
out in full. As a whole, this entremes is another piece of experi¬ 
mentation that leads to nothing directly for the form. 

The Entremes de Dona Justina y Calahorra may be by the 
same author as the Melisendra and the Romances. Like those, 
it is more literary than popular in spirit. The versification 
follows the same general lines. Romances and hendecasyllables, 
for the most part sueltos , form the basis, but even the sonnet 
is used. The characterization of the personages also offers 
strong lines of similarity, though the plots differ. Two women 
learn that their husbands, men of the vejete type, are making 
!o\ e each to his neighbor’s wife. They trick the husbands into 




THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


123 

a discovery of their perfidy, and the play ends with the unfaithful 
men receiving a beating. The dance that was already becoming 
familiar at the close of an entr em 6s is omitted. The word harle¬ 
quin appears here again in the entremSs. Whoever may be the 
author—and there is some temptation to wonder whether Lope 
did not have some hand in these entremeses that seem to show 
unity of authorship, and that appeared in the collections of 
his comedies—Cervantes is certainly not the one who wrote 
that of Dona Justina y Calahorra. 

The Entr ernes de los refranes once more shows experimenta¬ 
tion, and how completely all fields were ransacked for material 
suitable to the form. As the name implies, it is made iij!> of 
numberless popular expressions and sayings strung together 
to make such action and plot as is possible under the circum¬ 
stances. It is amusing if only for its futility as a play. It is 
in prose, and ends with music and a dance. It also certainly 
does not belong to Cervantes. 

The entr emeses of the seventeenth century hitherto examined, 
while they contain numberless experiments, show a steady 
tendency in the direction of a literary rather than an entirely 
popular and spontaneous tradition. As it was Rueda’s work 
to make a written entity, an end in itself, of the separate scene 
that authors, groping in the dark with no real perception of 
the end in view, had been wont to intercalate in their plays, 
so it was the business of the first decade and a half of the seven¬ 
teenth century to give to what had been no more than a formu¬ 
lated anecdote, intended to appeal directly and only to the 
lower classes of spectators, a background and a tradition in the 
literature of Spain. If Rueda did more than make the passo 
merely a popular formula, if he by the weight of his skill did 
not avoid giving it also an impulse toward the construction of 
a form in literature, the seventeenth century did not bring about 
the realization of that impulse in all its implications until the 
year 1615. 

In that century, and before Benavente, the great name in 
the history of the entremes is that of Cervantes who closed the 
prose period initiated by Rueda. Two only of his entremeses 
are in verse, but from 1615, the date of the publication of his 


124 


THE EARLY ENT REM&S IN SPAIN: 


eight entremeses , the prose form became more and more sporadic. 
It has been said with some truth that the entremeses of Cervantes 
'«, 4 are to the passos of Rueda what the Quijote is to the CelestinaA 9 
-j^This raises at once the question of the merit of Cervantes’ 
^".contribution. His entremeses have been the recipients of all 
'. degrees of criticism from the most severe blame to the most 
unstinted praise . 40 Perhaps the middle of the road as Fitz- 
maurice-Kelly takes it is safest and at the same time truest. 
, They,are interesting, not ample; good, but not master works; 
filling a limited sphere, and doing no more than that, nor by the 
} > torture of the form intended to do more. Possibly the worst 
i:v charge that can be brought against some at least of them is 
-r that they lack to a certain degree the dramatic qualities so 
essential in these playlets. Within the limited time allotted to 
“ the between-act play, nothing is more necessary than movement 
and intensity. These elements some of the entremeses of Cer¬ 
vantes lack to no small extent. That fact is not to be wondered 
at. Cervantes was essentially a novelist, and rarely is the good 
novelist a good dramatist as well. Everything that Cervantes 
wrote for the stage proves the correctness of his contemporaries 
in refusing him the place he so much coveted among the dramatic 
1', writers. One thing at least his age understood supremely well, 
tl^at is, what constitutes a dramatic artist. 

. . There seems to be no proof that these entremeses were played 

-. either then or later. They are undoubtedly the best work he 
has done for the stage, and to be rated well above his other 
pieces, but they show the same stamp of weakness as his dramas. 
' They lack in the one point that makes or mars a play as a play. 
uH [;< J 

Rouanet, Intermides espagnols, pp. 18-19. 

*• It may bo of interest to cite two or three of these criticisms: 

"Los entremeses cstan exentos de toda censura: son el modelo unico e insuperable de 
este g£nero dramatico.” Cotarelo, Efe.mirides Cervantinas, p. 264. Cit. also by Haraflas y 
la Rua, Los rufianes de Cervantes, p. 16. 

“In the Entremeses are discernible some indications of a talent, not ample, indeed, but 
! pleasing, affable, clear. . . .” Filzmaurice-Kelly, Life of Cervantes, pp. 182-83. 

J j |) "These poor farces and more inferior comedies." Calvert, Life of Cervantes, p. 70. 

"Ses intermedes sont beaucoup moins ind£cents que la plupart de ceux que 1'on jouait i 
cetle 6poque; mais cela ne prouve pas beaucoup en leur faveur.” Prosper M6rim6e, Portraits 
historiques el litteraires, p. 27. 

Sec also Wolf, Studien, pp. 620-21. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM ' M 125 

They must, therefore, be rated by qualities that have not wholly 
to do with the strictly stage standpoint. And some of their 
merit at least they find in that they belong in some measure 
to the dialogued story of which Cervantes showed himself so 
complete a master in the Colloquio de los perros. It will be re¬ 
called that in speaking of one of his comedies, Cervantes says 
that it was found “larga en los razonamientos.” 41 The same 
thing can be said of his entremeses. In this, he stands at the 
opposite pole from Rueda, but also it may be to some extent 
because of this that he could be the master who first really 
brought the form into literature of the highest class. 

Notwithstanding their weakness from a dramatic point of 
view, they were abundantly used by later entremesistas as a 
basis for their own productions. 43 In this sense at least, it is 
altogether true that they have remained as supreme models. 
It does not, however, argue in favor of their dramatic qualities. 
It is rather that Benavente and others found in them material 
capable of being moulded into really dramatic form. There¬ 
fore, instead of being played as they came from the hands of 
Cervantes, they were ransacked and re-worked, and represented 
only in their new form. 

The strictly authentic entremeses of Cervantes were published 
in the Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses of 1615. It seems cer¬ 
tain that a number of them had been written over a period of 
years, and were left lying in manuscript. The reason that,his 
plays did not come before the public Cervantes himself states: 
“Ni los autores me buscan, ni yo les voy a buscar,” for, “como 
tienen sus poetas paniaguados, y les va bien con ellos, no buscan 
pan de trastrigo.” 43 At the time of the Viage, 1614, he says, 
“Seis (comedias) tengo con otros seis entremeses.” 44 If this 
be an accurate statement of the case, it means that two were 
added within the year that preceded the publication of the 
collection. Various attempts have been made to date these 


<> Ad junta al Viage del Parnaso, p. 137. 

<> Cotarclo, Coleccidn . . .. intro., p. LXVIII. Rouanct, Intermides espagnols, p. 22. 

Uouterwek. Hist, of Span. Lit., p. 275. Mencndez y Pelayo, Estudios sobre el teatro de Lope 
de Vega, VoJ. I, p. 69. 

*' Adjunta al viage del parnaso, p. 139. 

« Adjunta, p. 139. 



126 


THE EARLY ENTREV&S IN SPAIN: 


/[height entremeses. From the allusions that they contain, the 
i \ evidence is slight. From the point of literary style, little per¬ 
haps can be learned. Cervantes’ works were for the most part, 
except for the first part of the Galatea , published between 1605 
and 1615, too limited a time to allow for enough change in the 
qualities of style on which to base an opinion. The versifica¬ 
tion of the non-prose entremeses has been looked upon as classing 
!<! ’ them in the sixteenth century period before the influence of 
\ Lope de Vega became supreme. 45 But such attempts at dating 
are at best very indefinite, and the whole matter is such as 
not in all probability to allow a satisfactory answer. But what- 
ever the date of writing of the entremeses , it is certain that Cer¬ 
vantes’ influence on the form does not antedate 1615: none 
pf his playlets had been used on the stage prior to publication. 
None, as has been said, were played after their publication. 
The influence was purely literary. 46 

The Viejo ccloso has been spoken of as an “ensayo pre- 
liminar.” 47 It is a statement scarcely susceptible of definite 
proof from the evidence at hand. The plot is one already found 
in the entremes , and one that belongs to practically all literatures: 
the young wife wearied of an elderly and jealous husband and 
unfaithful to him. As has been rioted, the general atmosphere 
is Italian, 48 but back of the evident foreign influence the in¬ 
dividuality and spirit of the author as a Spaniard are plainly 
to be felt, although the work is by no means worthy of him at 
his best. Perhaps nowhere else is Cervantes’ lack of dramatic 
sense more clearly to be felt. The story is not badly told, but 
it completely lacks dramatic interest. 

In all but one of his entremeses , Cervantes follows the custom, 
developed about the close of the sixteenth and the beginning 
of the seventeenth century, of closing with a song usually accom- 

*’ <s Schevill y Bonilla ed. Cervantes, Comedias y entremeses, VI, pp. 158-59. Yet Schaeffer 
(Geschichle des spanischen National dramas, I, p. 6) asserts, “Was die Diction angeht, so 
zeichnen sich die Verse Lope’s und seiner Schiller durch holie Schonheit und glatten Muss 
aus. Aeusserlich bctrachtet, sind die afters eingestreuten reimloser. Hendekasyllaben ein beinahe. 
untrugliches Mcrkmal dieser Periode.” 

«» On some of the attempts at dating, see Schevill y Bonilla, op. fit., p. 151 el seq., and Bonilla 
edition of Cervantes, Entremeses, intro., pp. XX-XXIV. 

Schevill y Bonilla, op. cit., VI, p. 156. 

<* Bonilla edition of Cervantes, Entremeses, intro., p. XXXIV. 




THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


127 


panied by dancing. He has the peculiarity, however, of some¬ 
times bringing the music to a close before the end of the play, 
and leaving the closing lines to dialogue, not depending on the 
dance to take the actors from the stage. One of the most musical 
of the Cervantes entremeses is the Rufidtt viudo, the latter part 
of which finds little excuse for existing except as a suppoit for 
the singing and dancing. It finds its inspiration in the tendency, 
already noted in Aguado’s work, toward the entremis cantado. 
One of the characters of the entremes in question is Escarramdn, 
a noted rufidnA 9 That is also the name of a famous dance, 
evidently new in the time of Cervantes, for in the Cueva de 
Salamanca one of the personages asks, “Donde se inventaron 
todos estos bailes de la Zarabanda, Zambapalo y “Dello me 
pesa,” con el famoso del nuevo Escarramdn?** In the Rufidn 
viudo , Escarramdn is the leader of the dancing. This entremSs 
has considerable relation to the Rufidn dichoso and Rinconete 
y Cortadillo through its study of types. 50 

The Eleccidn de los alcaldes de Daganzo has also music and 
dancing, forced in without reason at all. That part is wholly 
foreign to the plot, and serves to show how popular were both 
features in the entremes. The humorous content is not very 
great, but to offset this, Cervantes’ criticism of government 
and of society is nowhere more clearly expressed in any of his 
entremeses. That, of course, does not say anything in favor 
of its dramatic qualities. The interest lies in the insight it 
gives into the mind of the greatest writer of Spain. The speech 
of Rana condemning judges who use their high position to 
affront as well as sentence the hapless criminal is almost bitter 
in tone. It was clearly a subject that for some reason touched 
the great writer to the quick. Was it from some personal ex¬ 
perience with the law, or only from observation? The satire 
is often rather mordant. The voter who uses his suffrage and 
voice indiscriminately for whatever seems to be the popular 
side comes in for special, though indirect, flagellation. Satire 
belongs to the entremes by right, but it has not served Cervantes 


«♦ Bonilla, op. (it., p. 197 n. 71. 

s* Hazafias y la Rua, Los Rufiancs de Cervantes, p. 17, and pp. 83-85. 



128 


THE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


to make this one a successful play. Once again, he shows himself 
an excellent writer but a mediocre dramatist. This entremSs 
has been thought to belong to the period of his wanderings. 
If that is the case, it may at least in part account for the at¬ 
mosphere and the views expressed. 

The Retablo de las maravillas offers an interesting case of a 
play within a play, the first of the kind in the entremes. Two 
somewhat similar cases already noted are only rehearsal scenes. 
In Cervantes’ piece, a play is given before an audience composed 
> of the actors of the entremes. Little by little what was once 
' -billy a disconnected scene is adopting all the devices of the 
r -vlarger forms. In that fact lies the best proof of its development 
and hardening into a complete genre. From an allusion, 51 it 
i#not unlikely that this entremes was written shortly after 1603. 
V"' As regards the dramatic quality, the Guarda cuidadosa is 
considerably superior to the other entremeses of Cervantes thus 
far discussed. The point of main interest in it is the transforma¬ 
tion the personage of the soldier has undergone at the hands 
of Cervantes. His inherent tendency to fanfarronade and boast¬ 
ing are still present, but in much less degree. For the first time 
in the entremes , he is handled in a somewhat sympathetic way. 
He is neither very brave nor very cowardly. Rather he is 
nearer the true type of old soldier, proud of his campaigns 
* / which, however much they may honor him, do not serve to 
protect him from poverty and the scorn that indigence entails, 
tl His rival for Cristina’s hand wins because he is less lacking in 
worldly goods. One is tempted to ask whether there may not 
be in the picture a hint of personal reminiscences from the 
experiences he himself had undergone. For the development 
of the entremes , it is interesting to see the metamorphosis of a 
type. Cervantes has made of what was no more than a stock 
figure in both the Spanish and Italian theaters a living per¬ 
sonality. If the soldier was originally borrowed from Italy, 
oj.;.as some have thought, at least Cervantes has made him alto- 
r gether a new and better personage. There is a play by Miguel 
Sanchez, el Divino, that bears the same name as this entremes. 
It and the entremes have little in common. 

•' Cotnrclo. Coleccifin . . ., p. 31 n. 1. 


THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


129 


In the Vizcaino fingido , Cervantes deals again with a type 
already found in the entremts, and a favorite with him: that 
of the Biscayan. 5 * The plot is more like that of the primitive 
form than is usual in these eight entremeses. It turns simply 
upon a trick played by a pretended Biscayan on a woman. 
In spite of this primitiveness of form, however, the play seems 
certainly to belong to the year 1611. 53 In the entremes, as in 
any literary form, there are retrogressions as well as advances. 

The Cueva de Salamanca treats of the old theme of the de - 
ceived husband. The wife goes into hysterics at his departure. 
No sooner is he gone than her lover appears. In the midst of 
the festivities, the husband returns. He is made to believe that 
the intruders are devils called up at the behest of a student, 
in reality the lover, who had been given lodging in his house. 
The theme comes down from the middle ages, and is only a 
variant of the old-man young-wife story. It is found in Hans 
Sachs, as that of the Retablo in Eulenspiegel. 54 In the quality 
of its humor, it is not altogether Spanish, yet Cervantes has 
made of it one of the best in his collection of little playlets. 

The Jucz de los divorcios is a study o.f the complaints of wife 
against husband and husband against wife. It begins with 
the vejcte y mom theme, of which the writer gives both sides, 
an entirely new departure. As a play, it is perhaps not great, 
but the power of Cervantes as a satirist is manifest. The cases 
are heard by a judge who placidly leaves them unsettled, and 
the procurador cold bloodedly remarks, “After all, the most 
remain as they were, and we have enjoyed the fruits of their 
quarrels and foolishness.” Satire of the legal profession in the 
form dates, it will be recalled, from the time of Horozco. 55 

The Habladores , published in the seventh part of the comedies 
of Lope de Vega, 1617, without the name of Cervantes, 56 is of 


FernSndez-Gucrra y Orbc in Gallardo, Ensayo, I. 1294 n. 

»' Cotarclo, Coleccidn . . p. 23 n. 

«< Herman Kurtz, Cervantes' neun Zwischenspiele in Spanisches Theater, II, p. 7. 

« As an aside, it may be noted that Cervantes in his Colloquio de los perros (Fac. ed, of Real 
Academia espafiola, IV. 271) has one of his dogs speak of being taught to act in entremeses. 
It is quite possible that animal actors did appear in these litdc plays, though in the early 
history of the form there is no mention of such a case in any of the entremeses extant. 
s * Cotarclo, Coleccion ., p. 4fi n. 2. 



130 


THE EARLY ENTREM&S IN SPAIN: 


more than doubtful authenticity. 57 Neither in style nor form 
does it follow him. Rather, in both and in the matter of types 
as well, it seems to belong to the same hand that wrote some 
of the entremeses found in the earlier parts of Lope’s works. 

Cervantes’ contribution to the genre must depend, therefore, 
upon the eight examples found in the one collection. It has 
already been said that he added nothing in the matter of dramatic 
qualities. Material and types, not new but transformed and 
strengthened and brought into real literary being, he did add. 
But perhaps the greatest impulse he gave the new form was in 
the lending to it of the name of a great master of literature, 
from Rueda, who after all was an autor rather than a litterateur , 



give it a literary dignity it had not known before. That he had 
thought it worthy of him meant that it could no longer be 
looked upon merely as a form of popular amusement to be sup¬ 
plied by the scribbling of the autores , by those “poetas pania- 
guados” who fringe every literary movement, but carry no weight 
with the masters of the craft. And so, with the name of Cer¬ 
vantes as the first high-rank literary man of Spain to publish 
entremeses , it could and did take an accredited place among the 
dramatic forms. Therefore, if the Ocho entremeses do not in 
themselves add greatly to the fame of their author, however 


much that fact may have troubled him, 58 they have a position 
of no inconsiderable importance in the history of the develop¬ 
ment not only of the form, but of the theatre in Spain. 


si For an opposite view see resume of Schepelvitch, Cervantes e le sue opere in l.a Critica, 

II, 497. 

** Cervantes’ inordinate desire to excel in the theatre is well known. The reason he states 
clearly in the Vio&e , cap. VIII: 

Que ofrece la comedia, si se advierte, 
largo campo al ingenio, donde pueda 
'.ibrar su nombre del olvido y muerte. 



THE RISE OF A DRAMATIC FORM 


131 


VI 

Conclusion 

In brief, the history of the entremes until the time of Cervantes 
may be summed up as follows: 

The first faint traces of the form are found in the separate 
scene, intercalated in the early plays. Such scenes are found as 
early as Encina. From that time, they developed rapidly. 
Before the middle of the sixteenth century, they formed an 
independent entity. 

The word entremes , first used for the form about the middle 
of the century, is found for the first time in Spain in the year 
1381. Of French origin, it came in from the Provencal to the 
Catalan, whence it was adopted into the Castilian. In the 
fifteenth century, it had a broad variety of meanings, gradually 
centering, however, on an entertainment of some sort. The 
comic connotation which was later to be the distinct char¬ 
acteristic as applied to the form, began to be attached to it in 
connection with the popular diversions for which it was used. 

With Rueda and his contemporaries, the entremes became 
a popular form, used as a between-play to please and hold the 
attention of the audience. Partly from local reasons, partly 
because of Italian influence, prose became the accepted medium 
with Rueda and his followers. These early entremeses were 
usually no more than a dramatized moment, a humorous situa¬ 
tion or incident adapted to the stage. 

As the century moved toward a close, great numbers of en- 
trcmeses began to be used, few of which are extant. They were 
in nearly all cases probably the work of autores who supplied 
them for the plays of their companies’ repertoire. 

There is some slight evidence of Italian influence on the 
entr emeses of the early seventeenth century, especially in the 
matter of plot, and in the erotic element. The indigenous 


i n 


TIIE EARLY ENTREMES IN SPAIN: 


is 

Spanish qualities, however, so fa»* outweigh this element that 
it forms only an incident rather than a determining factor. 

In the seventeenth century before Cervantes, the form amplifies 
and sets in the mould that was to characterize its further develop¬ 
ment. Variations like the cntremes cantado appear in germ before 
the opening years of the century. 

In 1615, with the publication of the collection of entremeses 
bearing the name of Cervantes, the form assumes a real literary 
importance, breaking the last ties that held it as a purely popular 
' form. 


bs'i*' 


;»«. b~* 




iff?' -y.y 


jb* 


133 


INDEX 


Aceitunas, Las, 85, 89 

Actio intercalaris, 98 

Adjunta al Viage del Parnaso, 125 

/Esop, 121 

Aguado, Simon, 110-12, 120, 127 
Alameda de Sevilla, La, 109 
Alcazar, P. Jose, 25 
Alfonso de Santa Maria, 17 
Alimentos, Los, 120 
A mantes, Los, 103 
A mor vengado, 95 
Angulo, Juan de, 70 
Aparicio, Bartolome, 65 
Apologetico de las comedias espano- 
las, 114 

Aquilana, Comedia, 49-51, 80 
Armelina, Comedia, 23, 24, 87-88 
Arte nuevo de hazer comedias, 24, 29, 
30, 33, 34 n. 105 ' 

Ateilanae, 35 
Aurelia, Comedia, 79 
>Auto, 15, 17, 29 
•Autos (by local writers), 97 
Auto sacramental, 15, 28, 75 
Avehdano, Francisco de, 66 
Aveugle et son valet Tort, L\ 78 
Aveugle, son valet et une tripibre, Un, 
78 

Avila, Diego de, 44 
Baile, 29, 30, 38, 100, 101, 113, 114 
Baldes, Antonio, 113 
Ballet, 15 n. 32; de cour 111 
JJances Candamo, 19, 20 
"*0Benavente, Luis Quinones de, 26, 
32, 74, 100, 115, 123, 125 
Bibbiena, Cardinal, 48 
Biblioteca de autores espailoles, En- 
tremeses pub. by Cotarelo in, 115 
et seq. 

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 105 
Bodas de Espafia, Farqa sacramental 
de las, 33 
Bodel, Jean, 35 
Borghini, Vincenzo, 37, 38 
Borja, Luis Crespi de, 109-110 
Boyl, Carlos, 102 
Briand, Francois, 78 
Burladora burlada, La, 98 
Burton, Robert, 34 
Calamita, Comedia, 47-48 
jCalandria, La, 48 

^Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, 31, 77 
Camila, Colloquio de, 89 


Capeador, El, 120 
Caramuel, 25 
CArcel de Sevilla, La, 105 
vCarro, 9, 13, 14, 16 and n. 38; 17, 
19, 104 

Carvajal, Micael de, 54, 75 
Castel, 14 

Castillo de Emmaus, El, 80 
Castro, Adolfo de, 121-122 ^ 
Catalonia and Provence, their rela¬ 
tions, 11, 131 

Celestina, La, 42, 64, 74, 81, 91, 124 
Cenonia, La, 98 

"Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 74, 
92, 123-130; criticisms of : his 
entremeses, 124 n. 40 
Chacona, La (dance), 111 
v^hansons de geste, 119 
^Character-types in the entremes, 
71, 92 n. 51 

Chaves, Cristobal de, 105-106 
Chorus, Greek, 40 n. 6; 54 
Cid, Poema del, 120 
Clarindo, Auto de, 55 
Colloquio de los pen os, 122, 125, 129 
n. 55 

vCommedia dell’Arte, 20; earliest 
scenario 37 and n. 118; 53, 57 n. 
40, 105 n. 34; 108 
Conductus, 36 

Cornelia, Comedia, 80, 81 > 

Cotarelo y Mori, Don Emilio, 42, 
65, 69, 81, 115, 116, 121 
Cronica de Don Alvaro de Luna, 
18 n. 43; 70 

Cronica del Condestable de Castilla 
Lucas de Iranzo, 17 
Crotalon, El, 71 
Cueva de Salamanca, La, 129 
V/ Cueva, Juan de la, 101 
Cuna, La, 120 
Dama fingida, La, 120 
Deleitoso, El, 64, 75, 79, 82 et seq., 
96; as vademecum for autores 83 
De metodo studendi, 98 
De prccstantissima scientiarum ellL 
gendi, 98 

Desposorios de Joseph, Los, 101-102 
Diez, Antonio, 55 

Discordia y question de amor, 
Comedia llamada, 90 
Doctor simple, El, 120 
Doctrinal de Caballeros, 17 



134 


INDEX 


Dofla J ustina y Calahorra, En- 
tremts de, 122-123 
Doze cotnedias de quatro poetas 
• . . de Valencia , 118 

Duquesa de la Rosa, Comedia de la, 

, 93-94 

Egloga real, 40, 41 
Egloga ynterlocutoria, 44, 66 
Eleccion de los alcaldes de Daganzo, 
La, 127-128 

JEncina, Juan del, 37, 38, 39-44, 56, 
64, 65, 67, 89, 91 
Endemoniada, La, 120 
Engahados, Comedia llarnada de los, 
,.88 

Entrames, distinguished from roca, 
J 14 n. 28; 23 

nSntremes, 10 12; pageants, 13, 14, 
4T 15; at banquets, 9, 10; living 
actors introduced, 15, 16, 96; 
knightly games, 17; popular 
games, 18; allegory in, 26 n. 75; 
defined, 26, 27 n. 76; its position, 
27-28, 30-31; number used with 
a comedia, 28-30; cost, 29 n. 87; 
prop for weak comedies, 31; 
technical uses, 32, 34, 40, 41, 
45-46, 50-51, 59; sources of, 
34-38; determining characteristic 
of, 39; prose in, 74, 81; in Jesuit 
drama, 98 and n. 9; “aqui a de 
aver un entremes," 100; in School 
drama, 101, 117; mentioned after, 
1575, 103; with autos, 104-105; 
extempore acting in, 107-108, 
122; censorship of, 109 
^Entremes (word), first used in 
' Sp&in, 9; in Catalonian texts, 11; 

in. Provencal and French texts, 
' ll 1 , 12, 60 n. 4: Tiinoneda, etc., 75- 
76, 95; in Spain before 1500, 13; 
in Spain in sixteenth century, 21- 
>• 24; etymology, 13, 26 and n. 73 
^Entremes cantado, 110-112, 120, 
* 127 

iEntremes de pen, 72 n. 74 
-Entremes, untitled (Cotarelo coll, 
in N. B. de A. E., XVII, No. 21), 
116-117 

Ermitano, Entremes, 112 
Escarraman (dance), 127 
Ester as, Entremes de las, 79, 99 
Estrolago borracho, Entremes del, 107 
Eufemia, Comedia, 87 
Eulenspiegel, Till, 129 
Euripides, 35 ■ 

Examen sacrum, 28, 97-98, 121 


Exodium, 35 
Fabella cenaria, 101 
Farga a manera de tragedia, 22 
Farce, in France, 9 n. 2; as intro¬ 
ductory playlet, 30 n. 93; 38 n. 
123; 78 

Fenisa, Comedia, 106-107 
iFernandez, Lucas, 40, 45, 57, 67 
Finamiento de Jacob, Aucto del, 101 
Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James, 91, 124 
Flor de las solennes alegrias .... 

(Juan de Angulo), 70 
Florisea, Comedia, 66, 67 
Folia, 114 n. 31 
Fuelles, Los, 116 

Fuente de Sant Juan, Farsa del 
sacramento de la, 101 
Galatea, La, 126 
Gallofa, La, 97 
Ganassa, 76 n. 10; 108 
Gargon et Vaveugle, Le, 78 
Gorronas, Entremes de las, 117 
Eracioso, 79 

Guarda cuidadosa, La, 128 
Giiete, Jayme de, 21, 50, 51-54, 55, 
65, 79 

Habladores, Los, 129-130 
Hamlet, 98 

Hammes, Dr. Fritz, Das Zwischen- 
spiel, 36 
Harlequin, 111 

Hercules in the Grotto of Pholus, 35 

Himenea, Comedia, 21 

Historia de la gloriosa santa Orosia, 

71 

Horozco, Sebastian de, 67-71, 96, 
129 

Hospital de los podridos, 105 
House, R. E., 63, 92 n. 51 
Iluevos, Los, 121 
Indiano, Entremes del, 120 
interlude, 18 n. 44 
Intermedio, 26 n. 70; intermedj 
contadineschi 37; di musica, 40 
n. 5; 114-115, 114 n. 31 
Intermedium, German, 100 
Intermezzo, Italian, 10, 15 and n. 
32; 22 and n. 54; 32 n. 99; 37 and 
n. 121; 61 n. 44; 67, 103, 107, 112, 
118 

Introito, 77 

Iranzo, Lucas de, Cronica. . . ., 

17 

■^Italian influence, 37-38, 93, 107- 
108, 131. See also under the 
headings, “ Intermezzo,” “ Lazzi,” 
“ Melodramma,” “Intermedio,” 





INDEX 


“Commedia dell ’Arte.” 

Jacinta, Comedia, 46 
Jacobina, Comedia, 109 
Josefina, Tragedia, 54 
Juez de los divorcios, El, 129 
Ladrones convertidos, Entremes de 
los, 110,120 

Ladrones enganados, Los, 120 
La Fontaine, 121 

Lazzi, 37, 47 n. 21; 55, 79, 93, 108 
Lebrija (dictionary), 44 
Jeoa, 26 and n. 71, 27 n. 76; 29, 56 
Lucrecia, Farsa de, 55 
Luna, Don Alvaro de, 18 n. 43 
Maestro de escuelas, Entremes del, 
118 

Mamola, Entremes fatnoso de la, 118 
Mariana, 71, 109 
Martin de Santander, 110 
Mascara, 70 

Mazalquivi, Famoso entremes de, 118 
Medora, Comedia llamada, 88-89 
Melisendra> 118-119, 122 
ViVIelodrama, 15 n. 32; 67, 98 n. 9; 
112 

Memoria de las fiestas . . . en 

Toledo (Horozco), 69-70, 71 
Menendez y Pelayo, Marcelino, 11, 
75, 119 

Merchant of Venice, 86 
Milan, Luis, 73 

Miles gloriosus, 53 and n, 31; 32 
Mir ones, Entremes de los, 122 
Mojiganga de los nihos de Rollona y 
/lo que pasa en las calles, 112 
*Moratin, Leandro Fernandez de, 
94-95, 106 

Muchacho llamado Golondrino, En¬ 
tremes de un, 116 

Mundo y no nadic, Entremes del, 
106-107 

Natas, Francisco de las, 56 
Negros, Entremes de los, 111 
Negros de Santo Tome, Los, 120 
Northup, G. T., 105 n. 34 
Obispillo, 36 

Obra de El Pecador, 65, 66 
Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses 
j (Cervantes), 125-130 
'AMgenes del teatro espatlol, 94-95 
Ortiz, Augustin, 54 
Padte, enganado, El, 119-120 
Palau, Bartolom6, 57, 62, 63, 75 
Paliana, La, 79 
Palmyreno, Lorenzo, 101 
Parabola, coenae, 97 
Parras, Juan de, 29 


J 

'Pai 


135 


^asso (word), 26, 54, 75-76, 95 
Passo de dos ciegos y vn moqo, 78 
Passo de la razon y lafama, 26 n. 75; 

Pastor, Juan, 55 n. 36 
Pauon, 10 n. 5 

Pero {Pedro) Herndndez, EntremSs 
de, 115-116 

Pldcida y Vitoriano, 42-44 
Platillo, Entremes del, 110 
Plautus, 24 n. 65; 61 n. 44; 91 
Plaza del Retiro, La, 112 
Prado, Fernando de, 40 
^Prologue, 30, 31, 40 n. 6; 54 
Provence and Catalonia, their rela¬ 
tions, 11, 131 
Pulcinella, 37 n. 118 
Questione di dua fattori, Una (inter¬ 
mezzo), 37 n. 121 
Quixote, Don, 121-122, 124 
Radiana, Comedia, 54, 55 
Refranes, Entremes de los, 123 
Registro de representantes, 64, 82 
etseq.; 96, 107, 120; as a vadetne- 
cum for aulores, 83 
Relojes, Entremes de los, 117-118 
Rennert, Hugo A., 30, 118 
Repelon, Auto del, 41-42 
Resurrecion de Christo, Auto de la, 
101 

Retablo de las maravillas, El, 128 
Rey A suero, Aucto del, 101 
Rey de Artieda, 103 
Ricercari, 72 

Rios, Nicolas de los, 28, 112, 113 
Robo de Digna, Farsa del, 101 
VRoca, 9, 13, 14; distinguished from 
entrames, 14 n. 28; 16, 17 
Rojas Villandrando, Agustfn de, 
28, 33, 61 n. 45; 76, n. 10; 81, 
113-114 

Romance a un licenciado que deseaba 
hacer comedias (Carlos Boyl), 102— 
J 103 

Romances, Entremes de los, 121-122 
Rosalina, Comedia, 23, 80 
Rosiela, Farsa, 72-73 
Rouanet Collection of autos, etc., 
99-101, 105 

Rouanet, Leo, 26, 27 n. 76, 51 n. 28 
Rudwin, M. J., 34 

'Rueda Lope de, 23, 28, 38, 48, 57, 
58, 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 71, 74, 75, 
76, 77, 81-92, 94, 96, 99, 102, 
106, 115, 116, 121, 123, 124, 125, 
130 

Rufidn viudo, El, 127 



136 


INDEX 


Ruzzante, 91 
Sachs, Mans, 129 
Sacre Rappresentazioni, 51 
Sacrificio de Abraham, Auto del, 98 
Sacristan Soguijo, El, 121 
Sacristia de Mocejon, La, 117 
Vsaincte, 9 n. 3; 29 n. 87 
Saint Nicholas, Jen de, 35 
Salamantina, Fargo, 22-23, 57, 

63-65, 66, 67, 73 
Salas Barbadillo, 25 
Saldana, Luis and Pedro, 102-103 

J anchez, Miguel, 128 

anchez de Badajoz, Diego, 31, 
57-60, 67-, 120 

Santa Cecelia, Misterio de la bien- 
aventurada, 66 n. 53 
Scala, Flaminio, 57 n. 40; 69 n. 61 
Schack, Conde de, 27 n. 76; 109 
Schlegel, F. von, 35 
>: Sepulveda, Comedia de, 60-63, 74, 88 
Serajina, Comedia, 45 
Shakespeare, William, 86, 98 
Silvestre, Gregorio, 71, 72 
Soldadesca, Comedia, 46-47 
Sordo, Farsa del, 90-91 
Stiefel, A. L., 88 . 

Suarez de Figueroa, Cristobal, 24 
n. 65; 33 , 

Sueno de Nabucdonosor, Auto del, 
100 

Tarrega, Francisco de, 113 
Tesorina, Comedia, 21, 52, 64 n. 48 
Testamento de los ladroncs, El, 115 
\Theatro de los Iheairos, 19-20 
Theocritus, 91 
Tholomea, Comedia, 93, 94 
f- Ticknor, George, 31 
Tidea, Comedia, 56, 57 


Tierra de Jauja, La, 79, 84-85 
Fimbria, Colloquio de, 28, 89-90 
/Timoneda, Juan de, 23, 26, 28, 30, 
54, 61, 68, 74-80, 81-83, 96 
Tinellaria, Comedia , 46 
vfrorres Naharro, Bartolome de, 21, 
38, 45-51, 52, 53, 55, 61, 80 
Toscanelli, N., 35 
Trapagera, Farga, 23 
Trcs pastores, fcgloga de, 41 
Trionfo del sabio, El, 98 
Trofea, Comedia, 46 
Tropes, 35 

Turia, Ricardo de, 98, 114 

Turiana, La, 23, 30, 75, 77-79, 82, 
97 

Tutor, Comedia del, 101-102 
Varias obras ineditas de Cervantes, 
122 

Veaulx, Les, 30 n. 93 
Vega, Alonso de la, 93-95 
Vega Carpio, Lope Felix de, 24, 25, 
29, 30, 33, 74, 85, 116; first part 
of the comedies of 118 et seq.; 
third part of the comedies of, 
121-122; 126, 129 
Victoria, Baltasar, 112 
Vidriana, Comedia, 21, 22, 27, 52, 55 
Viejo celoso, El, 126 
Viejo ques casado con una mujer 
moza, Entremcs de un, 105-106, 

Villalobos, Francisco de, 70 
Villegas, Antonio de, 113 
Viluppo, II, 61 
Vita Christi, 32 
Vizcaino fingido, El, 129 
Zwischenspiel, Das, 36, 37, 55 n. 
30; 61 n. 44; 107 









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